Math Is Fun Forum

U7109

Real Member

Registered: 2007-03-19

Posts: 485

Re: pi

Choco, Here is what pi is.

It's wintertime and you are at a perfectly round lake and it's great for skating.
One person skates straight across the lake through the middle to the other side.
And that is one kilometer or one mile, it's just an example.
Now then he skates along the edge of the lake back to where he started, which is
going around half a circle.  Now he has gone 2.57 kilometers or miles all together because
3.141 divided by 2 is 1.57, so when he came back along the edge, he went 1.57 kilometers or miles.

So another person skates around the whole lake, she would go 3.141 kilometers or miles.
That's the number pi, about three, or 3.1, which is about 3% more than 3.
More accurately 3.141, which is about 5% more than 3.

Also kilometers are shorter than miles by about 35%, but this example doesn't care how big the lake is, just the numbers, and how much bigger different numbers are.

Oooh, I get it now thanks, John.

---

"Reality leaves a lot to the imagination," ~ John Lennon

John E. Franklin

Member

Registered: 2005-08-29

Posts: 3,588

Re: pi

Glad you liked it Choco!!  From, John

---

igloo myrtilles fourmis

Kurre

Member

Registered: 2006-07-18

Posts: 280

Re: pi

an easy and fast approximation of pi that i use is 3+1/7
not that accurate but usually accurate enough

Last edited by Kurre (2007-04-29 02:49:23)

Anthony.R.Brown

Banned

Registered: 2006-11-16

Posts: 516

Re: pi

Does anyone know of any Statistical Data Sources regarding Pi Number frequencies from 0 to 9 a Web site would be good!

A.R.B

Devantè

Real Member

Registered: 2006-07-14

Posts: 6,400

Re: pi

Someone posted a bunch of that at one point, even highlighting the frequences, but it appeared that they were all random and were...well, useless.