this post was submitted on 14 Mar 2024
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Science Memes

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suck it, math nerds (mander.xyz)
submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Not true. If you define the circumference in terms of pi, you can define the circumference exactly.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (2 children)

"Find" not "define"

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago

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)

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Putting things in base 10 is also a definition. Digits aren't special.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Was going to say the same. Also π isn't infinite. Far from it. it's not even bigger than 4. It's representation in the decimal system is just so that it can't be written there with a finite number of decimal places. But you could just write "π". It's short, concise and exact.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Not sure where you're going with the decimal thing. Pi had infinite digits in any integer base because it's irrational.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Can pi be expressed with a finite amount of digits in another number system?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

How about a pi based system, then pi is 1.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I don't think there's any technical reason we can't count in base pi

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago

I'm pretty happy with being able to write integers in a finite number of digits. Wouldn't want to give that up.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Well we need an integer base number system....

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

"A base is usually a whole number bigger than 1, although non-integer bases are also mathematically possible."

https://simple.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Base_(mathematics)

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

But it makes life harder

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago

Not if you're mainly interested in counting multiples of pi.