March 14.15926....

[Zeke]

Happy Pi Day! (If I'd been on the ball I would have made this update at 1:59, but consider this an exercise... a Pi-lates exercise.) Those who remember how we celebrated Pi Day last year will recognize the modified front page; newer readers, make sure to take a look.


And now, a survey of great pi moments in 5MV history....

[*]T'Pol gets pi-etic[*]The dark secret of the Sleapers' final dimension[*]And my all-time favourite pi moment in both Trek and 5MV, "Wolf in the Fold".[/list]Wait, that's it? There have only been three? (Well, if you add a smidge for all the pie moments, there have been 3.1415...) This must be rectified! Have a slice of The Top 10 Pi Day Activities of Enterprise Characters.


Finally, to round off the festivities in style, here's a classic Peanuts pi joke. A kid named 5 has just moved into the neighbourhood -- his Dad changed the whole family's names to numbers as a protest against the growing dehumanization in society. (Their last name is 95742, with the accent on the 4.) Pondering this whole business, Linus and Charlie Brown have the following exchange....


Linus: If we all had numbers instead of names, what number do you think you'd like to have?

Charlie Brown: How about 3.1416?

Linus: I don't know... I have a feeling that every Tom, Dick and Harry would be called 3.1416!

[Ginga]

Once again, I must say that my day sucked until I saw the pi-ful homepage of 5MV, which made me giggle and brought my mood up many notches.

That Top 10 list was great, which coming from me is a good sign, knowing I haven't seen enough Enterprise to understand half the in-jokes in the fivers.

[Opium]

YAY!

Awesome Top 10 list!

[Standback]

T'Pol: Nothing -- the Vulcan Science Directorate has concluded that pi is irrational

::dies::

[Draknek]

Phlox's is brilliant. (I can't seem to quote it properly)

[Derek]

Originally Posted by Zeke

And my all-time favourite pi moment in both Trek and 5MV, "Wolf in the Fold".

You like me. You really like me.

And I have to agree with Standback on

T'Pol: Nothing -- the Vulcan Science Directorate has concluded that pi is irrational

Nice numbering too, by the way.

And decalogy is a great word even if it's not at m-w.com or dictionary.com. In fact, your whole disclaimer is very transcendental.

[Standback]

I may or may not have quoted this before on this forum. And even if I haven't, I don't think I've ever noticed any particular enthusiasm for Gilbert and Sullivan here. But since it took me more than three seconds to relocate the lyrics, I figure this is a good place for a handy backup. With no further ado...

The Pi Proof of Penzance
A proof of the irrationality of pi, to a well-known tune

That pi must be irrational, I claim, is demonstratable:
Assume that with a quotient of whole numbers it's equatable
-- Say, m o'er n. Define a_k, by fiat dictatorial,
For every natural k to be one over k factorial
Times integral from naught to pi of (n times (t)(pi - t))
To power k, times sine (or for you Latin scholars, _sinus_) t,
dt. These a's are *positive*, with *finite sum* (indeed, it e-
Quals integral exp(n times (t)(pi - t)) sin t dt).

Chorus: It's integral exp(n times (t)(pi - t)) sin t dt!
It's integral exp(n times (t)(pi - t)) sin t dt!
It's integral exp(n times (t)(pi - t)) sin t dt, dt!

But integrate by parts -- each a's the sum of the preceding two
Times integers, a_naught is 2, a_1's 4n, thus leading to
(since *all* must then be integers) a contradiction statable,
And thus that pi's irrational, you see, is demonstratable!

Chorus: Since *all the a's are integers*, a contradiction's statable,
And thus that pi's irrational, we see, is demonstratable!

[Derek]

Originally Posted by Standback

I don't think I've ever noticed any particular enthusiasm for Gilbert and Sullivan here.

No, I have not had a chance to meet all the new forum members.

But that's a great song. It reminds me of one of the cheers at my institute of higher learning:

e to the x dy dx,
e to the x dx,
Tangent, Secant, Cosine, Sine,
3.14159,
Square roots, Cube roots, Poisson brackets,
Dis-integrate ‘em Yellow Jackets!

[PointyHairedJedi]

And of course I totally missed the front page. Bah. Still, I'm sure it was Pi-tastic.

[mudshark]

Seen outside the Math(s) Dept. at UCLA: sign

Geeks.

[PointyHairedJedi]

:lol:

[MaverickZer0]

I didn't even notice the numbering until someone else at my school pointed it out. I like Tucker's entry....but I doubt that surprises anyone.

[Zeke]

Originally Posted by PointyHairedJedi

And of course I totally missed the front page. Bah. Still, I'm sure it was Pi-tastic.

Uh, it's still there.

(Fixed your post for you, mudshark. Next time, just edit the post rather than adding more posts and getting my hopes up about more feedback than is really there, 'k?)

[Zeke]

Originally Posted by Standback

I may or may not have quoted this before on this forum.

You may or may not have, but I've linked to Kevin Wald's excellent page in a newspost before. I tried to work through the proof once when I was doing a project on transcendental numbers, but couldn't follow one step (I forget which). Fortunately, I didn't need it -- it's much easier to prove that e to a rational power is transcendental, and then get pi's transcendence as a corollary since e^iπ = -1.

[AKAArzosah]

Originally Posted by Zeke

-- it's much easier to prove that e to a rational power is transcendental, and then get pi's transcendence as a corollary since e^iπ = -1.

AAAAGGGGHHHH! *runs into wall*

[Standback]

Yeah, that's probably where I first saw it, then

[PointyHairedJedi]

Originally Posted by Zeke

Uh, it's still there.

Do'h, of course it is. for some reason Ctrl+R doesn't always seem to work quite properly.

[NAHTMMM]

Phlox: πmπn'!
Sato: Learn the first 9000 digits of pi in 9000 different languages; never get to say any of them

...Heheheh

Soval: Reflect on the mystery of IDID -- Infinite Diversity in Infinite Digits

Ooo, deep. :mrgreen:

T'Pol: Nothing -- the Vulcan Science Directorate has concluded that pi is irrational

:lol:


Nice touch with the numbering system too

[Xeroc]

Hee - Hilarious stuff, Zeke!