8 mo. ago • 92%

suck it, math nerds

97 comments

More likely a mathematician would correct you instead of crying. Pi is not infinite, its decimal expansion is infinite!

153
- Plus even that isn't enough: 10/3 has an infinite decimal expansion (in base 10 at least) too, but if π = 10/3, you'd be able to find exact circumferences. Its irrationality is what makes it relevant to this joke.
  
  A mathematician is also perfectly happy with answers like "4π" as exact.
  
  Plus what's to stop you from having a rational circumference but irrational radius?
  
  Writing this, I feel like I might have accidentally proved your point.
  
  86
  
  Mathematicians taking a physics class and being told they have to round things. That’s when the tears start flowing.
  
  13
- Its decimal expansion is finite in the base pi.
  
  31
  
  1?
  
  8
- This is the correct answer. Pi is known. What it's decimal expansion looks like is irrelevant. It's 1 in base Pi.
  
  19
  
  Yup, similar to the square root of two and Euler's number.
  
  These are numbers defined by their properties and not their exact values. In fact, we have imaginary numbers that don't have values and yet are still extremely useful because of their defined properties.
  
  7
- The actual punchline here should have been “there is no known equation to calculate the exact perimeter of an ellipse”, then sucking tears from an astrophysicist
  
  17
  
  Try it when you find some physicist that cares about exact values. Or when you see pigs flying over your head, both are about as likely.
  
  10
- Exactly, a fraction is completely as valid of a way to express a number as using a decimal.
  
  1/2 = 0.5
  
  They're both fully valid ways to write the exact same quantity
  
  5
- This was my first thought and then I realized I had been nerd sniped.
  
  4
Easy. Take a wire that is exactly 1 meter long. Form a circle from the wire. The circumference of that circle is 1 meter.

106
- A nanodegree of difference in temperature will change the length of the metal.
  
  20
  
  And this why you don't touch the thermostat.
  
  31
- "exactly"
  
  uh huh. and how are you measuring that?
  
  17
  
  Now the engineers and/or scientists are crying
  
  30
  
  You don't need to, it's defined. (Lol). If you take a circle with a circumference of 1, then its circumference will be 1... I think I might have lost some braincells reading this.
  
  19
  
  I don't have to measure it. I stick under glass and define it as the standard which all other measurements are derived from.
  
  13
  
  I will be measuring it in meters. One. There you go.
  
  11
  
  Plancks
  
  2
  
  Laser Measure.
  
  1
- Laser measure
  
  0
Not true. If you define the circumference in terms of pi, you can define the circumference exactly.

71
- "Find" not "define"
  
  7
  
  Putting things in base 10 is also a definition. Digits aren't special.
  
  46
  
  That doesnt make a difference. You can find the exact circumference of a circle, you just cant express it in the decimal system as a number (thats why we have a symbol for it so you can still express the exact value)
  
  17
Also

68
- Pi = 4! = 4×3×2 = 24
  
  22
- Omfg why can’t I figure out why this does not work. Help me pls
  
  16
  
  I think it's because no matter how many corners you cut it's still an approximation of the ~~circumference~~ area. There's just an infinite amount of corners that sticks out
  
  33
  
  It's a fractal problem, even if you repeat the cutting until infinite, there are still a roughness with little triangles which you must add to Pi, there are no difference between image 4 and 5, the triangles are still there, smaller but more. But it's a nice illusion.
  
  24
  
  Because you never make a circle. You just make a polygon with a perimeter of four and an infinite number of sides as the number of sides approaches infinity.
  
  10
  
  https://youtu.be/VYQVlVoWoPY
  
  5
- The lines in this are askew and it's mildly annoying
  
  9
  
  They're there to askew why the logic doesn't work.
  
  5
- Does this work with triangles too?
  
  1
- That approach works for area but not for perimeter, because cutting off the corners gives you a shape whose area is closer to the circle's, but it doesn't change the perimeter at all.
  
  0
Who said Pi is infinite? If we take Pi as base unit, it is exactly 1. No fraction, perfectly round.

Now everything else requires an infinite precision.

65
- Eek, that makes my skin crawl. Taking what you said literally would imply that π² = π.
  
  2
  
  pi equals 10
  
  4
  
  I'm pretty sure a base-Pi counting system would mean that Pi is π, not 1.
  
  You'd count π, 2π, 3π, 4π, and so on. It doesn't change reality, just the way you count and represent numbers.
  
  I might be off, but it's definitely not π = 1.
  
  3
  
  You still think in 1-based system, Pi unit * Pi unit is Pi of Pi units or 3.14159.. Pi units. Also, Pi unit / Pi unit is 1/Pi Pi units or 0.318309886183790.. Pi units..
  
  1
- I'm confused, how is pi used as a unit? My understanding is that it's a number
  
  1
  
  6π is an acceptable answer for finding the circumference of a circle with a radius of 3 units of something.
  
  8
  
  1 is also a number, a number we chose by convention to be a base unit for all numbers. You can break down every number down to this unit.
  
  20 is 20 1s. 1.5 is 1 and a half 1.
  
  If we have Pi as a unit, circumference of a circle would be radius*2 of Pi units. But everything that doesn't involve Pi would be a fraction of Pi, e.g. a normal 1 is roughly 1/3 of Pi units, 314 is roughly 100 Pi units, etc. etc.
  
  6
Let's say you got a circle with radius 1/π...

45
- came here for this
  
  4
Nasa uses 15 digits of pi for solar system travel. And 42 digits is enough to calculate the entire universe to atomic accuracy

35
- And 65 digits is sufficient to calculate the circumference of the visible universe to within a Planck length.
  
  17
  
  We need MOAR precision!
  
  3
  
  I know enough digits of pi to calculate the circumference of the universe??
  
  0
Yeah, calling pi infinite makes me wanna cry, too.

33
- If only mathematicians had a number for that. Ya know, the people famous for making names for things on average once per published paper, most of them completely useless.
  
  -1
Not if your diameter is d/pi. Then your circumference is d, where d > 0.

Check mate atheists.

23
- Well now you can't find the radius
  
  4
  
  Radius = d/(2*pi)
  
  1
- Check mate matheists.
  
  Ftfy.
  
  4
Technically you can't measure anything accurately because there's an infinite amount of numbers between 1 and 0. Whose to say it's exactly 1? It could be off by an infinite amount of 0s and 1.

Achilles and the Tortoise paradox.

19
Joke's on them, tears are too salty to provide hydration.

17
The circumference of a circle with a diameter of 1 cm is exactly π cm. There you have it.

14
m e a s u r e

11
- Bah, the universe is too messy and disordered to be worth the trouble
  
  9
Besides measuring it with a measuring tape.

7
Pi is 3.

4
- Ah, the Euler identity. 3^i ^3 -1=0
  
  6
  
  Rofl :D Well, close enough, and about as sexy when a bit drunk.
  
  2
Prove it.

3
Ahem. MathEmaticians.

3
And you can't trust anything calculated with an imaginary number. Common guys, it's right there. It's imaginary like the, totally not AI, person I'm pretending to be.

-2

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