On Monday, March 14, 2016, the progressive community will celebrate a holiday - Pi Day.
After the pancakes - pies
Scientifically speaking, pi is the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter. A seemingly simple thing, but it has worried the minds of mathematicians since ancient times. And it continues to excite. To such an extent that scientists about 30 years ago agreed to celebrate the holiday of this number "Pi-day". And they celebrate every year on the 14th of the 3rd month. That is, March 14th. This date can be written as 3.14, which corresponds to the most common - approximate - value of the number "Pi".
Particularly advanced people begin to celebrate "Pi-Day" at night - 1 hour 59 minutes and 26 seconds local time, which symbolizes 3.1415926. This is already 7 decimal places after the decimal point.
Interestingly, this holiday follows right after the Shrovetide, during which it is customary to eat pancakes - products that would not be so round without Pi. After the pancakes, mathematicians bake round Pi-rogs and take round dances with relatives and colleagues - naturally, in a circle.
And quite a mystical coincidence: the holiday of the number Pi falls on the birthday of Albert Einstein, who fanatically used the number Pi in his works.
Legends say that the Babylonian priests knew about the number "Pi". Used in the construction of the Tower of Babel. But they could not accurately calculate its value and therefore did not cope with the project. The very symbol of the number "Pi" was first used in his writings in 1706 by the mathematician William John (William Jones). But it really took root after 1737 thanks to the efforts of the Swedish mathematician Leonhard Euler.
Promotional video:
The American physicist Larry Shaw came up with the idea of celebrating Pi-Day. After all, the number "Pi" is also hidden in people. Where? You can easily guess. In the round pupils of our eyes.
The number of decimal places in the number "Pi" multiplies from year to year.
Digital infinity
Two decimal places in the number "Pi" are quite enough for everyday computing. Somewhere, for example, in space ballistics, more of them - signs - are needed. But ten - 3.1415926535 - would be enough for any task. Nevertheless, people simply go out of their way to determine as many decimal places as possible. Compete with each other.
In 2010, mathematician Nicholas Sze of Yahoo calculated pi to two quadrillion digits - two times ten times the fifteenth. This is a lot. If the width of each sign were only one millimeter - only to look through a magnifying glass, the number "Pi" would stretch as much as 2 billion kilometers. And its end would protrude beyond the solar system. (For reference: from the Sun to Saturn about one and a half billion kilometers).
The mathematician went to the record for 23 days. True, not alone. Thousands of computers worked on it, united by the technology of so-called diffuse computing. And a method was applied, the essence of which is to break a huge problem into many small ones and solve them separately. As a result, Nicholas gave a phenomenal result, which took more than 500 years to obtain, if calculated on one computer.
Nicholas's colleagues assure that record calculations are by no means stupid. It can be useful in cryptography and physics. It is also useful for testing the performance of a scattered computing system.
How many digits are there in the number "Pi" after the comma? Apparently an infinite number. What is it, in which the sequence of these characters is not repeated. According to some prominent physicists and mathematicians, for example David Bailey, Peter Borwin and Simon Plouffe (David Bailey, Peter Borewin, Simon Plouffe), they - will never be found by anyone and never. At least write the whole universe in signs. And in this scientists see a kind of hidden mysticism. It is believed that the number "Pi" encoded endless primordial chaos, which later became harmony. And there is a hint that the universe is still infinite.
Monument to Pi at the Museum of Art in Seattle (USA).
BTW
The aliens told us what is the number "Pi"
Obviously, representatives of extraterrestrial civilizations, who, for sure, also have a lot of round things, know about the outstanding role of the number "Pi". Do they set records by calculating quadrillion signs? Not known. But they accurately determined nine pieces after the decimal point. What they told us in 2008.
Crops laid down by the number "Pi".
The cipher circle originated about 130 kilometers from London, in Wiltshire. The tireless researcher of the phenomenon Lucy Pringle visited the scene, photographed the print from a helicopter and posted the pictures on her website. Astrophysicist from North Carolina (USA) Michael Reed (Michael Reed), having seen them, I realized: the pattern is by no means meaningless, as is usually the case. Its elements encrypt the number "Pi" - as many as 10 characters!
- Wow! - admired the world press. Apparently because the result of the decryption was simply obvious. And it is understandable even to people far from mathematics with geometry.
- I conventionally divided the circle into 10 sectors, - says Michael. - Actually, it was already as if divided - by diametrical steps. They start and end arcs of concentric circles. I look further: there is a "point" after the arc of the smallest diameter. And the arc itself covers three sectors. I write "3", I put a point. The next arc - with a larger diameter - stretches through one sector. I write "1". Behind it is an arc in four sectors. Total, 3.14 is the rounded pi number, which is usually used in approximate calculations.
Decryption of the cryptogram.
“Even that struck me as funny,” recalls the astrophysicist. - I continued. Behind the arc of four sectors - after the next step - there was an arc in one sector. Then at five, at nine, at two, and so on. The result was 3.141592654 - this is the number "Pi" with an accuracy of the ninth digit! And who needed to report this? Perhaps, brothers in reason think that we cannot afford such "accuracy"?
GOOD TO KNOW
355/113 = 3, 141592 - this is how the number "Pi" was calculated in China more than one and a half thousand years ago.
