Between The Wheels

Sorry if this is an unusually tedious topic, it's just a curiosity question. I was not good at maths at school, I didn't have the attention span. I managed to catch up a bit in my 20s.

But sometime in my teens I decided I'd memorise Pi to 7 decimal places, ie 3.1415927 (rounded) and it's stuck with me ever since.

This came to mind because someone phoned 5 Live earlier in the week who'd memorised it to 13 places as a youth.

So if someone asked you what the value of Pi was, how many decimal places could you recall?

Same as you, this was sort of a math type thing we had imprinted at school.

Same to when we went from Guilders to EUR in 2003, that was 2,20371 for the exchange rate. Everyone was just multplying by 2, missing the 10% on top. Retail owners made a fortune that first year..

Quote from: Slim on August 14, 2025, 11:16:54 AMSorry if this is an unusually tedious topic, it's just a curiosity question. I was not good at maths at school, I didn't have the attention span. I managed to catch up a bit in my 20s.

But sometime in my teens I decided I'd memorise Pi to 7 decimal places, ie 3.1415927 (rounded) and it's stuck with me ever since.

This came to mind because someone phoned 5 Live earlier in the week who'd memorised it to 13 places as a youth.

So if someone asked you what the value of Pi was, how many decimal places could you recall?

3.142 is all I've ever needed.

Same as you, James, seven places. May I have a drink, alcoholic of course, is what we were taught at school. Although that makes the last number 6.

Same as James.

Probably because my calculator only displayed a total of eight digits.

Quote from: David L on August 14, 2025, 01:39:25 PM3.142 is all I've ever needed.

I suspect that's the one that most people know. For a circle of 6 metres diameter, you could derive the circumference to an error of 2.44mm with Pi=3.142 which for many applications is good enough.

Whereas with Pi=3.1415927 you could derive the circumference of the Earth to less than a metre.

I cannot remember where I've ever used Pi without using the Pi button on a calculator anyway. Earlier I asked the other half how many decimal places she knew. It's less than 0. She didn't even know the nearest integer. Intelligent woman, university graduate. But not maths.

Never learnt it beyond 3.142

By the way, (I've probably mentioned this before, so forgive me), strictly speaking π is only pronounced "pie" in a mathematical context; in the Greek, the letter π is pronounced "pee".

Quote from: The Picnic Wasp on August 14, 2025, 02:05:16 PMSame as you, James, seven places. May I have a drink, alcoholic of course, is what we were taught at school. Although that makes the last number 6.

Right I see how that works now. It gives the first 7 demical places, but not rounded. This would work for rounded:

May I have a drink, alcoholic or without

Or you could consider a ? to be the seventh letter

May I have a drink, alcoholic of course?

3.14 was my limit.. a bit like the Vangelis album Albedo 0.39😀

Quote from: Matt2112 on August 14, 2025, 03:28:06 PMNever learnt it beyond 3.142

By the way, (I've probably mentioned this before, so forgive me), strictly speaking π is only pronounced "pie" in a mathematical context; in the Greek, the letter π is pronounced "pee".

Which is how we pronounce it in the Netherlands.

22/7 is always a good standby.

Quote from: The Picnic Wasp on August 14, 2025, 07:32:11 PM22/7 is always a good standby.

What's a date in July got to do with anything?🙄😀

Quote from: Fishy on August 14, 2025, 08:14:44 PM

Quote from: The Picnic Wasp on August 14, 2025, 07:32:11 PM22/7 is always a good standby.

What's a date in July got to do with anything?🙄😀

Cos I played football in the street when I was young and I've never owned a games console, so finding out how to type these ÷ is beyond me.