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 8 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[–] [email protected] 161 points 8 months ago (6 children)

More likely a mathematician would correct you instead of crying. Pi is not infinite, its decimal expansion is infinite!

[–] [email protected] 86 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Plus even that isn't enough: 10/3 has an infinite decimal expansion (in base 10 at least) too, but if π = 10/3, you'd be able to find exact circumferences. Its irrationality is what makes it relevant to this joke.

A mathematician is also perfectly happy with answers like "4π" as exact.

Plus what's to stop you from having a rational circumference but irrational radius?

Writing this, I feel like I might have accidentally proved your point.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 8 months ago

Mathematicians taking a physics class and being told they have to round things. That’s when the tears start flowing.

[–] [email protected] 31 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Its decimal expansion is finite in the base pi.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 8 months ago (1 children)

1?

[–] [email protected] 9 points 8 months ago (1 children)

No 10. 1 is the same number in any base.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago

In my experience, 1 is equivalent with 1’s in other base.. this particularly applies for base-ball

[–] [email protected] 19 points 8 months ago (1 children)

This is the correct answer. Pi is known. What it's decimal expansion looks like is irrelevant. It's 1 in base Pi.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 8 months ago

Yup, similar to the square root of two and Euler's number.

These are numbers defined by their properties and not their exact values. In fact, we have imaginary numbers that don't have values and yet are still extremely useful because of their defined properties.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 8 months ago (1 children)

The actual punchline here should have been “there is no known equation to calculate the exact perimeter of an ellipse”, then sucking tears from an astrophysicist

[–] [email protected] 10 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Try it when you find some physicist that cares about exact values. Or when you see pigs flying over your head, both are about as likely.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Perfectly spherical pigs?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago

Would go well with my former teacher's point-shaped cows.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago

I see, you were never at a Pink Floyd concert

[–] [email protected] 5 points 8 months ago

Exactly, a fraction is completely as valid of a way to express a number as using a decimal.

1/2 = 0.5

They're both fully valid ways to write the exact same quantity

[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 months ago

This was my first thought and then I realized I had been nerd sniped.