Newsgroups: alt.philosophy.objectivism,alt.sci.physics.new-theories,sci.physics,comp.ai,comp.ai.philosophy,sci.philosophy.meta,sci.math
Path: cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu!bb3.andrew.cmu.edu!newsfeed.pitt.edu!gatech!newsfeed.internetmci.com!vixen.cso.uiuc.edu!uchinews!cars3.uchicago.edu!MERON
From: meron@cars3.uchicago.edu
Subject: Re: 9, prime gone bad.  was RE: zero blah blah
X-Nntp-Posting-Host: cars3.uchicago.edu
Message-ID: <DMGuKF.9wL@midway.uchicago.edu>
Sender: news@midway.uchicago.edu (News Administrator)
Reply-To: meron@cars3.uchicago.edu
Organization: CARS, U. of Chicago, Chicago IL 60637
References: <4ean0d$q64@news.cc.ucf.edu> <Pine.A32.3.91.960202150414.97262A-100000@yu1.yu.edu> <4f83aa$iva@taco.cc.ncsu.edu> <4f847k$n82@fido.asd.sgi.com> <4f8s3l$qof@nntp4.u.washington.edu> <4f96nn$j03@status.gen.nz> <4fccnh$666@milo.freenet.vancouver.bc.ca>
Distribution: inet
Date: Thu, 8 Feb 1996 16:45:51 GMT
Lines: 27
Xref: glinda.oz.cs.cmu.edu sci.physics:170046 comp.ai:36846 comp.ai.philosophy:37538 sci.philosophy.meta:24425 sci.math:135545

In article <4fccnh$666@milo.freenet.vancouver.bc.ca>, ptm@opus.freenet.vancouver.bc.ca (Peter Mielke) writes:
>Eric Flesch (ericf@central.co.nz) wrote:
>: caj@tower.stc.housing.washington.edu (Craig Johnston) wrote:
>
>: >I would like to register my objection to the number 9 --
>
>: Hey, what about PI?  It used to be well behaved centuries ago, now it
>: has silly pretensions about having infinite digits.  All this from a
>: number which is only 355/113 anyway...
>
>
>Nice try. 
>Pi is not exactly 355/113, but I have always (forever and ever!) admired
>that approximation for being so highly accurate with relatively low values
>in both numerator and denominator. It is only 8 and 1/2 millionths of
>one per cent of pi's value too high! But it still doesn't replace 22/7 for
>being both very nearly equal to pi _and_ very usable for headwork. 
>
>For the benefit of the curious:             pi = 3.141 592 65...
>                                       355/113 = 3.141 592 92...
>
>22/7 = 3.142857... and is about 4 tenths of one percent too high.

Too fancy.  Any experimentalist knows that pi = 3, and pi^2 = 10.

Mati Meron			| "When you argue with a fool,
meron@cars3.uchicago.edu	|  chances are he is doing just the same"
