happy pi day
post for pi day 2023
When I was a kid, I memorized this much of pi: 3.14149265358979323846264338 (I haven’t checked if this is still right).
My favorite pi day event is standupmaths's annual YouTube video where he calculates pi in increasingly elaborate ways. This year he does it with a car spinning out of control.
I used to be into TAU like TAU=2×PI so it's TWICE AS GOOD. Now I am still into it a little, but empirically I still just use pi for everything so it's hard to justify a tau rant. Also standupmaths argues for pi over tau and I just recommended his video.
But substack has a beta feature for math formulas, so here is a nice math formulas using tau.
On the other hand, I have only memorized three digits of tau (6.28). Revealed preference again.
Let's talk about remembering the digits of pi that I know. They're actually pretty memorable. First it's 3.14, of course. I actually keep 3.14159 all as one chunk. Then it's 26535 which is a nice chunk, especially six-FIVE three-FIVE. Then it's 8979, which is kinda similar right, eight-NINE seven-NINE. The next chunk is 3238, which I think of as THREE-two THREE-eight. Then 4626, which again is four-SIX two-SIX. Then 4338 which is four THREE THREE eight.
There's a clear pattern: every chunk has a repeated digit! This should go on forever in my opinion, but unfortunately it doesn't. The next few digits don't have any repeat and so I never remember them. It's tragic and I blame whoever came up with the digits.
I also know Euler's number because my compilers teacher in college taught the class the first few digits. (I have no idea what it has to do with compilers – I think he just liked telling people.) Here's what he taught us: Euler's number starts with 2.7 of course. Then it goes 1828. (I was a fan of this chunk, one-EIGHT two-EIGHT.) Then it goes 1828. That's not a typo, it's the same chunk twice! How convenient. Then it goes 459045, which might seem like a weird chunk, but he said to think of it as 45°-90°-45° which are the angles of an isosceles right triangle. And that’s it: 2.718281828459045. (Well Euler's number goes on forever like pi, but that's all that he taught us. Well he also taught us how to write compilers, which is pretty cool.)
When I was a kid, I didn't like pie. Apple pie? No thanks. Pumpkin pie? Literally the worst. Cake was fine, but pie was right out. I don't know why I used to be so sensitive about different foods. Now pie is fine though.
I actually tweeted through the moment when a bunch of my food sensitivity went away. It was randomly while eating a vitamin gummy that at first I thought was kinda gross.
It's weird because after this I could suddenly eat tons of stuff that I hated before. Mashed potatoes? Can be good! Pumpkin pie? Sure!
I want to try to get better at describing the mental move that happened, because it would have really helped me as a kid if someone had been able to communicate it. I think it is possible to communicate. I wasn't taking any drugs or psychedelics; I didn't meditate for hours or anything. The only recent thing was I read some tweets about Alexander Technique (which I do think might have been relevant, possibly indirectly or possibly directly). But it would be nice to figure out how to tell people how to do it, so they too can enjoy pumpkin pie.
Maybe on June 28th, I'll write up a more tau friendly post. (If I don't, then I guess that's just another revealed preference for pi.)