Happy π day - a 3.14 celebration with 3.14 SBD giveaway!
On March 14th people all over the world "celebrate" π day, but since there are still people who are not familiar with what π actually is I will take this opportunity and make an interesting post with some fun facts about it as well as provide some educational information. Before I started writing this post I found out that Steven Hawking died and that made this day less fun for me than I would have wanted it. That event will be the third one that will mark this date; π day, Einsteins birthday and Hawkins death date. It does sound sorrow, but things do come in threes :(
What is π?
π is defined as the circumference divided by the diameter of a circle but you can also draw π. If you take your callipers and draw a circle that has a diameter of 1 (radius of 0.5), the circumference is then π.
It has been calculated that π has over two quadrillion decimal places with no pattern in the appearance of digits, and since there are no two numbers which ratio will result in π, we call it an irrational number. Irrational numbers are those who cannot be written as fractions, for example, √2, PI, e, √3, √99 etc.
FUN FACT:
"Followers of Pythagoras could not accept the existence of irrational numbers, and it is said that Hippasus was drowned at sea as a punishment from the gods for discovering irrational numbers when trying to write the square root of 2 as a fraction." Source: mathisfun.com
WHO discovered π and when?
This is actually a hard question, we can not pinpoint the exact date of π discovery. Since 2550 BC humans have been aware of the constant ratio between the circumference of a circle and its diameter. The ratio of the perimeter of the Great Pyramid at Giza (1760 cubits) and its height (280 cubits) is approximately 2 times π. If you are wondering what cubit is, don't beat yourself up. It is about 18 inches long and it was measured by a person's forearm length. Different people, different forearms? I know, I said "approximately" didn't I? :)
Archimedes of Syracuse (287-212 BC) is the one who is considered to be the first to calculate an accurate estimation of the value of π by using 96-sided polygons. He came up with a value between 3.1408 and 3.14285. Zhu Chongzhi (AD 429-500), on the other hand, used 12,288-sided polygon and came up with 355/113. There were also Madhavan of Sangamagramam from the 15th century and William Jones from the 17th, both with valuable work. William Jones was actually the first to use the Greek symbol π but it was Leonhard Euler who popularised it.
There are two equally important and the most important calculations of π in history. I can not say which one is the most important one so I remain stubborn in my opinion that both are equal. D. F. Ferguson calculated π to 620 digits in 1945, and that was the most accurate calculation before computers. Shigeru Kondo calculated π to 10 trillion digits using Alexander Yee’s y-cruncher program on October 19, 2011.
FUN FACT:
"If you hold a mirror to a circle, it looks like a circle. If you hold a mirror up to PI, it spells PIE!" Source: Pi day
Do we use π?
If you come up to a mathematician and say that π is irrelevant or unimportant, you will get slapped across your face. I should know, as a physicist I've been around some pretty serious math people in my time, and they are not the ones to mess with :)
π is often used in geometry, especially with calculations and everything to do with circles but there are more areas in science that do have π than there are that don't. Area of the circle, a volume of a cylinder, values of trigonometry function like sine, cosine, tangent, measuring circular velocity, statistics, fractals, thermodynamics, mechanics, cosmology, number theory, electromagnetism, light waves, sound waves, radioactive particle distribution and probability and many more. π is everywhere.
FUN FACT:
"Pilish is a dialect of English in which the numbers of letters in successive words follow the digits of pi. The first book ever written completely in Pilish is "Not A Wake," by Mike Keith." Source: livescience.com
How will I celebrate π day?
I am celebrating with a 3.14 SBD giveaway. All you have to do is:
- upvote and reestem this post
- answer my question in the comments below this post
And what is the question you ask? Oh, it is an easy and fun one. Here it goes:
Didn't I say it would be fun? So go on to the beginning and count away. I will use a random generator to decide whic one of the correct answers will be the winner. You have 3,14 days to answer but to make it easier, let's round that up to 3. You have 3 days for your participation in my celebration. See you on Saturday!
Unsourced images are under CC0 License and are free for personal and commercial use. You can find them on pexels.com
For additional information about π please follow the links to my sources:
it appeared 21 times :)
Love it! My daughter was born on pi day! March 14th 2018 is one of the happiest days of my life! My little girls Darwynn was born, einsteins bday and the death of stephen hawking it was a very powerful day of math, indeed even better she was born at 1:23pm. Stop by my blog! Scroll back 3 days :3 there is the blog about the most beautiful creation, recorded first on steemit! My guess is 27
I'll tell 26 but I can't believe we can't hit the number hahah.
Thanks to your post, I just realized that Stephen Hawking died on Pi day... Sometimes, life is strange.
Pi is not just a Greek letter. It's a symbol that represents a value that has numerous use. If you look around you. Most things we encounter are circular in shape. The Pi is mostly used in that respect. From the vehicle wheel, to satellite orbits, rotating shafts, football, just to mention a few. What I vital parameter it is.
Happy Pi day!!!
π appears 21 times
What a March 14th this year @zen-art!! I count 24 including headings and that last pie sign in your face seeking additional information at the bottom of the post.
If this includes the pie symbol in the pictures there are another 2.
This is kind of a trick question as the pie symbol is hidden in several places.
The correct answer is between 21 and 27. I don't trust my eyes anymore but I resteemed this.
Hihihihi, nope :D
Just above the last "fun fact" there is a line that says where pi can be found. Keep up the good job, you are doing great and I am especially proud of you for including the headings, now spread out your search a bit more. Good luck!
And do not worry, if you comment and give the answer more than once I will take your last answer into consideration if you say that that is the final answer :D
I'll just have to take a crazy guess.
Sir, your 📮post is 👍good
Sir, please see my profile
Please, do not spam irrelevant comments. Spamming 1 picture in your every post and copy-paste comment on whichever post you click on means you aren't here for interaction or the growth of steemit, nor do I see the tiniest hope for your change in behavior. With that said you've been reported to @steemcleaners.
This was a fun post. I would say that the first fun fact was not so fun for the guy that drowned... I guess he discovered that humans are also irrational... HAHAHAHA!
As for the number of π featured. If you include the π in the title, it would be 26. If you exclude the title, it would be 25 times.
Since we can both agree that title IS a part of any post and any text in general, I will conclude that your answer is 26. But I am not telling you if it is correct yet. See you on Saturday :)
Yeah, 26 would my attempt/guess/count. But I know I'm wrong, I've seen others answer and I think they're more accurate than I am! I forgot the pictures!
28 yo!
Anyway you got me hyped with this counting so I forgot to leave a good comment... haha too bad that Stephen died on this day, but we can take a moment and think about our Cosmos, our being, infinity and such topics...
This post is a good starting point to start dreaming awake :)
28 as well! ;)