More Useless C#*P

[Doug_Tipple]

These Greek letters are getting me all mixed up, and I am too lazy to look up the proper Greek symbols. The number written above is pi, the 16th letter of the Greek alphabet. The Greek symbol for pi is used to denote the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter.

The Greek letter for the Golden Section should be tau and not phi. Like pi, tau is also an irrational number (1.61803....). Revision: I see from looking at the website given by Treeshark that they use phi for the Golden Section. Kind of confusing to me.

From "The Seven Mysteries of Life" by Guy Murchie, page 337:
"There is also a particularly mystic and irrational number or ratio known to matematicians and architects as the Golden Section and sometimes represented by the Greek Letter tau, which could, for aught I know, signify Tree or Topology or Tao. Certainly it is one of the world's magically beautiful relations that directly affliates protozoa and trees with geometry. Heaven only know where it ends, or if.

I might define tau by saying that it is the ratio between two incommensurable quantities of which the lesser is to the greater as the greater is to the sum of them both. Or, taking a specific example, tau is the length of the diagonal of a regular pentagon or of the radius of a regular decagon expressed in units equal to any side of either of these equal-sided figures.Such units of course could extend any distsance: an inch, a mile, an angstrom, a light year. It makes no difference, for tau always comes out 1.61803.... which is the length of the diagonal or the radius in whatever units we use. Tau, in other words, is the ratio between two lengths (expressed in numbers) in the same way that pi of 3.14159... is the ratio between the diameter and circumference of a circle.

Like pi, tau is an irrational number because it discriminates distances that lack a common denominator. And so there is no known end to its decimal places and therefore no way it can be expressed exactly, a discovery credited, by the way, to Pythagoras himself and which shocked science in the sixth century B.C."

[eilam]

that's good !!!
i think I'm not those who do, because I'm pretty sure i'm not, not those who don't

[chas]

The Greek letter for the Golden Section should be tau and not phi. Like pi, tau is also an irrational number (1.61803....). Revision: I see from looking at the website given by Treeshark that they use phi for the Golden Section. Kind of confusing to me.

I've never seen it referred to by tau, but then I've never heard it called the Golden Section either. I've always heard Golden Mean and always phi. Maybe it's one of those things like sqareroot(-1), which most call i, but engineers call j.

[Chiffed]

One slightly crazy prof of mine made us do a paper relating the Golden Mean to a Stravinski piece. It required some very creative mathematics and argument. Chomsky would have gagged.

[Bretton]

There are 10 kinds of people in the world: those who understand binary and those who don't.

I was in a Cisco Networking certification class a while back and we bought our instructor a t-shirt that said that.

[anniemcu]

It's come down to this.

3.14159265358979323846264338327950288419716939937510582097494
459230781640628620899862803482534211706798214808651328230664
709384460955058223172535940812848111745028410270193852110555
964462294895493038196442881097566593344612847564823378678316
527120190914564856692346034861045432664821339360726024914127
372458700660631558817488152092096282925409171536436789259036
001133053054882046652138414695194151160943305727036575959195
309218611738193261179310511854807446237996274956735188575272
489122793818301194912983367336244065664308602139494639522473
719070217986094370277053921717629317675238467481846766940513
200056812714526356082778577134275778960917363717872146844090
122495343014654958537105079227968925892354201995611212902196
086403441815981362977477130996051870721134999999837297804995
105973173281609631859502445945534690830264252230825334468503
526193118817101000313783875288658753320838142061717766914730
359825349042875546873115956286388235378759375195778185778053
217122680661300192787661119590921642019893809525720106548586
327886593615338182796823030195203530185296899577362259941389
124972177528347913151557485724245415069595082953311686172785
588907509838175463746493931925506040092770167113900984882401
285836160356370766010471018194295559619894676783744944825537
977472684710404753464620804668425906949129331367702898915210
475216205696602405803815019351125338243003558764024749647326
391419927260426992279678235478163600934172164121992458631503
028618297455570674983850549458858692699569092721079750930295
532116534498720275596023648066549911988183479775356636980742
654252786255181841757467289097777279380008164706001614524919
217321721477235014144197356854816136115735255213347574184946
843852332390739414333454776241686251898356948556209921922218
427255025425688767179049460165346680498862723279178608578438
382796797668145410095388378636095068006422512520511739298489
608412848862694560424196528502221066118630674427862203919494
504712371378696095636437191728746776465757396241389086583264
599581339047802759009946576407895126946839835259570982582262
052248940772671947826848260147699090264013639443745530506820
49625245174939965143142980919065925093722169646151570985.....

Delicious!

Pie in the face is pretty easy to depict graphically, Rob. What can you do with the number phi written above?

Spend a lifetime trying to complete it... for one.

[dfernandez77]

I discovered something most astounding!

There IS a direct relationship between Pi....

...and Sports Cars!

[dow]

Speaking of pi, I watched a program on the Discovery Channel on Saturday night about a guy who is a mathematical savant, and also is very high functioning, unlike many who are severely retarded in other ways. Here's the page that talks about the show Brainman

He worked pi out in his head to 22,500 decimal places. Took him about five hours and ten minutes.

[Cathy Wilde]

There are 10 kinds of people in the world: those who understand binary and those who don't.

I was in a Cisco Networking certification class a while back and we bought our instructor a t-shirt that said that.

Actually, as much as I'm honored, I can't take credit for that bit of cleverness; ID10-t said it.

If I could get such thinking I'd have a degree from our fair university instead of a near-miss .

[Cathy Wilde]

One slightly crazy prof of mine made us do a paper relating the Golden Mean to a Stravinski piece. It required some very creative mathematics and argument. Chomsky would have gagged.

"Colorless green ideas sleep furiously." My favorite quote. That man was brilliant! Thanks for the smile!

[Cynth]

Have some pie:

Back to more interesting things. Exactly what sort of little pies are these? I have never seen this shape of pie before. They look quite tasty. Where are they from? Is there a special name for the shape?

[Wormdiet]

Have some pie:

Back to more interesting things. Exactly what sort of little pies are these? I have never seen this shape of pie before. They look quite tasty. Where are they from? Is there a special name for the shape?

Have ye neve been to Highland games? Those are meat pies. . .essentially a Highland Burrito. The flavor and texture are meatloafy, and a bit spicier. They are actually pretty good once every four years.

[dfernandez77]

Back to more interesting things. Exactly what sort of little pies are these? I have never seen this shape of pie before. They look quite tasty. Where are they from? Is there a special name for the shape?

Have ye neve been to Highland games? Those are meat pies. . .essentially a Highland Burrito. The flavor and texture are meatloafy, and a bit spicier. They are actually pretty good once every four years.

Looks like a Highland Warrior's lozenge.

[AaronMalcomb]

They are actually pretty good once every four years.

More like every 4 hours... with your cardiologists permission of course.

In Scotland they're sometimes called Scotch or Mince pies. They are ubiquitous at bakeries and chip shops. Follow up a night on the pish with one (or two) of those doused with brown sauce and washed down with Irn-Bru. Superb!

Did I mentioe that Scotland has the highest rate of heart disease in Europe?