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[Reply #30 on:]

But not the 3_4_5 thing and all the rest. 

That's because there is no 3_4_5 thing. The rest is fundamental relationships you can't understand without advanced math and coincidental digits.

You do the math you get to see it. There's no other way. You don't and you may become prey to charlatans and worse.

3_4_5.... what a con!

[Reply #31 on:]

has any one read "Half Past Human" or "Godwhale" by T.J. Bass?

His gY=c premise that it's the creators signature is kinda interesting.

basically a planets gravity times the year in seconds comes out to the speed of light for a habitable planet.

And on the subject of pi, have you guys seen the movie?

If you haven't you should

[Reply #32 on:]

I liked the first Castenada set better.

[Reply #33 on:]

There is nothing unique about base 10.  We chose it because of our fingers?  This proves that there is some connection between the base we use and the number Pi.

If only a threetoed sloth could talk and inform us what he thinks pi is ?

[Reply #34 on:]

Actually, when you look at it objectively, the currently accepted value of Pi is the wrong value to use anyway. It's value should be doubled, which makes many equations simpler. Just look at how often you have formulas that contain the constant value "2pi". Pi seldom stands alone.

Suggested reading:
http://www.math.utah.edu/%7Epalais/pi.pdf

[Reply #35 on:]

It seldom stands alone.  But it stands alone more often than pi/2 or pi+constant.  So it makes more sense to define pi than 2pi. 

A= Pi * r^2  That's the first one we learned with Pi in it.

[Reply #36 on:]

If only a threetoed sloth could talk and inform us what he thinks pi is ?

3.05033005141512410523441405312532110230121444200411525255331420331

However, since it's a sloth, most people would give up and walk away before it got past the second "3"...

[Reply #37 on:]

for a 3 toed sloth counting in base 3
base10 -> base3
1- 1
2- 2
3- 3
4-10
5- 11
6- 12
7- 13
8- 20
9- 21
10- 22

as for 2Pi, thats a radian/gradian thing

geometrically Pi is diameter/circumference

[Reply #38 on:]

Uhhh, Cybertech.... how do you count to 10? With 1 hand?

The usually teach circumference first.

Pi as a half-circle, once you start using graphs and trig makes a whole lot of sense.

I've read there's been recent discovery of a pile of Archimedes' writings. The man was on to the limit or working on it before the Roman soldier showed him who's boss.

There's an ancient Arabic proof of the Pythagorean Theorem from centuries before Pythagoras that I always liked because it's geometric. But my hat's off to the Indian scholars who invented zero and went on to other depths (finite series, maybe infinite series) maybe 1000 years before Newton.

I remember finding out why the volume of a sphere is 4/3 Pi R^3, why the 4/3. It doesn't "prove" anything but the volume of a sphere but it was nice to know how. Which brings me to this whole "proves" thing. Some people have awfully loose ideas about what proof is, ie: "I want" + "something convenient with no real connection" = "proof". Please.. just.. think.

[Reply #39 on:]

Right, perhaps the sloth uses base 6 then ??   and can you imagine how slow he would be using a calculator, as Ran said.

[Reply #40 on:]

so the Roman's had how many fingers?

base 10 as we know it was an Arabic invention.

besides the sloth would fall out of the tree if he/she used both hands

but to cater to the pedantic

1- 1
2- 2
3- 3
4- 4
5- 5
6- 10
7- 11
8- 12
9- 13
10- 14

this assumes the sloth has learnt the value of 0, either as a quantity or a place holder

[Reply #41 on:]

I can't help wondering - 'now who are the nutters ?'

Fair points though.

Duane B

[Reply #42 on:]

I think its fairly late night bar sport !

[Reply #43 on:]

There may exists algebraic proof of the volume of a sphere but if you do integral calculus, the volume is fairly easily found. What was hard for me in college was finding volume of n-dimensional sphere. I never got the concept right to start with.

[Reply #44 on:]

A few years agoI went to buy some paving paint to repaint my laundry floor, I asked the smarmy hardware guy, "How many cans of this do I need for a floor 3 metres by 4 metres"

he replied

"how long is a piece of sting?"

I suggested he procreate with himself