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pi

Name: Anonymous 2007-03-27 2:01 ID:wVpOMFXV

Is it possible for the equation to end? What would happen if mathematicians discover it (or find a pattern)?

Name: Anonymous 2007-03-27 2:46 ID:SbZxYs9y

There are many proofs that show pi is an irrational number.

Name: Anonymous 2007-03-27 3:13 ID:2ek156Ut

>>1
To say what >>2 said more plainly, there is no pattern to pi, and it has been proven that there is both (1)no pattern, and (2)no end to pi.

Name: Anonymous 2007-03-27 3:25 ID:Heaven

Mathematicians must have too much time on their hands if they're  computing pi to trillions of digits..

Name: Anonymous 2007-03-27 9:03 ID:dyQARN1g

They might find a pattern.  What would happen?  Nothing.

There is no reason in principle why it might not turn out that after the quadrillionth digit, the digits of pi are 3733733333373333333333333333333333337333... .  (If this did happen, it would be utterly shocking to mathematicians, although perhaps not to anyone else.)  Pi is known to be irrational, but this only rules out "periodic" patterns, where a fixed sequence of digits repeats exactly the same, over and over.

Name: Anonymous 2007-03-27 12:13 ID:Heaven

>>5
Define "non-periodic pattern".

Name: Anonymous 2007-03-28 2:08 ID:ZX8qSzCb

>>6
The number shown by >>5 is an example of a "non-periodic pattern", although I'm not sure if that's what it's actually called or if he made up that term (I suck at vocab). Either way, the number he has shown does have a pattern, you could write up a program to write it digit-by-digit using simple rules.

Here's a classic example quoted out of the book "The Art of the Infinite - The pleasures of Math".

"1. print 5.
2. print one more 6 in a row than were printed before the “5” of the previous step.
3. return to step 1.

Once we set the machine in motion it prints “5” after the 0. initially there, giving us
         0.5
then, because there were no 6s printed before the 5, it prints one 6:
         0.56
and cycling back to its first order, prints 5 again:
         0.565
now it will print two 6s
         0.56566
then a 5, then three 6s
         0.565665666 . . .



    You see the pattern of this non-repeating pattern: the strings of sixes grow ever longer, and no cycle can possibly occur. We have, with a few words, cast an infinite line with an irrational hooked on its receding end—an irrational which has a unique location, somewhere between 56/100 and 57/100."


As you can tell the pattern generated is "non-periodic" because it doesn't repeat in a set period, although that doesn't mean that it's not a pattern (even though it is still irrational).

Name: Anonymous 2007-03-28 5:18 ID:vQWjYSd+

Another phun phact about pi is that it's an open question if the distribution of digits in the decimal expansion is uneven - i.e. "do more 1s show up than 9s"?

Name: Anonymous 2007-03-28 8:51 ID:Ya87kUoi

there's a site where you can find your phone number in pi, i found mine! super-cool.

Name: Anonymous 2007-03-28 15:13 ID:5SbPNTn2

>>9
a site?

Name: Anonymous 2007-03-28 15:15 ID:5SbPNTn2

>>9
a site? /r/ link?

Name: Anonymous 2007-03-28 16:21 ID:eqgYfu8/

Name: Anonymous 2007-03-28 16:22 ID:Ya87kUoi

here's the one i was referring to:
http://jclement.ca/fun/pi/search.cgi

There's also:
http://www.angio.net/pi/piquery


and others, search for more on google.

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