Pi equals 4

[Vikas]

Originally Posted By: Shannow
Originally Posted By: Vikas
Can't you ask Google to do it for you? Yes I am half serious but there is a vast majority of population which have zero interest in physics or math or for that matter science. They are able to live their life very happy without exercising that part of their brain.


And they are all oil experts too !!!

Because this is oil forum. If you visit investing forum, they all think they are next Warren Buffet but could not do 1.10^2 in their head without Excel spreadsheet.

 

[Garak]

Originally Posted By: Vikas
Can't you ask Google to do it for you? Yes I am half serious but there is a vast majority of population which have zero interest in physics or math or for that matter science. They are able to live their life very happy without exercising that part of their brain.

Our population would be well served to read this Isaac Asimov story.

 

[SilverFusion2010]

When I was in school we were expected to know pi to at least 4 decimal places. There was one girl who memorized it out to 50 places or something

 

[PandaBear]

Please define: 1) equals, and 2) how are you going to use it.

Honestly, for a back of the envelope calculation off your head, 4 may be good enough. For launching a rocket into space? You better use a computer.

 

[Vikas]

Actually, for launching rocket in space a slide rule was used.
For the young among us, google what is slide rule.

 

[Number_35]

Originally Posted By: Garak
Originally Posted By: Vikas
Can't you ask Google to do it for you? Yes I am half serious but there is a vast majority of population which have zero interest in physics or math or for that matter science. They are able to live their life very happy without exercising that part of their brain.

Our population would be well served to read this Isaac Asimov story.
Great story, thanks so much for posting. I'm not usually a big Asimov fan, but he nailed it.

For any car nerd who thinks Pi is not useful, consider calculating the area of a circle:

A = Pi*r^2

Now set the diameter of the circle to 4". The radius (r) is therefore 2", and the area of the circle = Pi*2^2 = Pi*4 = 12.5663706...in^2.

Now consider a cylinder defined by a 4" circle and 3-1/4" deep ... its volume will be the area of the circle x the depth = 12.5663706 in^2 x 3.25" = 40.84070 in^3.

What if we had eight of them? 8 x 40.84070 in^3 = 326.725... in^3 which rounds up to 327 cubic inches.

Hey, the bore of the legendary Chevy smallblock 327 is 4", and the stroke is 3.25". What a coincidence!

 

[Garak]

Originally Posted By: Number_35
Great story, thanks so much for posting. I'm not usually a big Asimov fan, but he nailed it.

Not a problem. We were actually made to read that back in elementary school, during the height of the Cold War in Reagan's first term, and it was pretty relevant then, too.