My way of celebrating π day is to rummage through my trove of obscure writings and dig up some interesting esoterica on the subject of that constant. Here’s what I found. In case you’re new to this: every now and then I encounter a paper or a book or an article that grabs my interest but isn’t directly…
Pi Day on Twitter
We can’t hope to keep up with all the π action around the internet today, so here’s a live stream of #piday tweets. #piday Tweets
I bought three.onefouronefivenine.com
I’m a big fan of novelty domain names: I once bought hotmathematicians.com just so that christian@hotmathematicians.com could be my corresponding address when I submitted a paper. That domain has expired, but my love for one-shot novelty purchases has not! To celebrate π day this year, I decided that it should be possible to type a little…
π approximation: Machin’s formula
In the excellent $\pi$ approximation video, Katie Steckles asked for $\pi$ approximations. I teach a first year techniques module (mostly calculus and a little complex numbers and linear algebra). This year I have changed a few bits in my module; in particular I gave some of my more numerical topics to the numerical methods module…
π and the Mysterious Excel Function
Users of Microsoft’s flagship 2D-array-based data-organisation tool Excel will be aware of some if its more recondite functions. From the occasionally useful RIGHT: returns the substring of a given length from the right-hand end of a cell’s contents to the wilfully obscure TBILLPRICE: gives “the price per $100 face value for a Treasury bill” when supplied…
Matt Parker approximates π by weighing a circle
OK Matt, what have you got?
π, Phase Space, and Bouncing Billiard Balls
There are many ways to estimate or calculate π, that number that is irrational, but well-rounded. But perhaps none is as remarkable as that outlined in a 2013 paper by G. Galperin. In this brief article we’ll have a look at the problem, and see the setting, although we’ll leave the interested reader to hunt…