Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with pi

Help me find an online surface area/volume calculator that uses 3.14 as an approximation for pi.

23skidoo — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 08:34:17 -0800

I'm looking for an online surface area and volume calculator, where I plug in various measurements of a cylinder or sphere and it calculates the answer for me. But I want one that approximates pi as 3.14. No, you're not helping me to cheat. I'm answer checking middle school math materials. All the surface area and volume calculators I've found online use a much longer approximation of pi, and all the questions I'm working on specifically direct students to "use 3.14 for pi".

(Note: if your answer includes any variation on "It doesn't take that long to calculate the surface area or volume yourself", then you are an unhelpful person who isn't very good at reading.)

If you think about it, if someone helps CF Kane get the sled back earlier, a lot of people lead much better lives. So who is that hero?

rileyray3000 — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 15:53:57 -0800

Say that Citizen Kane really wanted to find Rosebud - who would he call? Is there a kind of specific person who tracks down these personal lost things? So I’m doing research for a project and I’m wondering if there is a specific class of person of searcher, or researcher or private investigator who goes looking for objects that are lost. Kind of like art provenance people but more general if that helps.

If there’s a name or kind that exists and you can tell me, that would help. And if there really is some sort of expert out there you can name that I could then try to reach out to and ask some questions that would help more.

A beowulf cluster with nothing to do.

brenton — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 15:06:24 -0800

I scrapped all my junk computers together and made the most rag tag beowulf cluster ever in my living room. Mostly as a conversation starter. But now I have to figure out what to have it working on. What's something that will sound really cool?

Do you take Thomas Sullivan Magnum, I.V., to be your lawfully-wedded husband?

thenewbrunette — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 10:56:08 -0800

Does anyone remember a "Late Night With Conan O'Brien" sketch featuring a man who is so in love with the Magnum, P.I. theme song, that he marries it? This is probably a waste of a question but it has haunted me for years. I recall a pre-guest sketch on "Late Night with Conan" dating back to the late 90s, early 2000s, which featured a man who was so in love with the theme song from "Magnum, P.I." that he married it. The actual ceremony was officiated by a minister who stood between the man and a boombox, with clips of the theme song interspersed to replicate "I do." I cannot find this anywhere on the internets, please validate my memory.

Pi Day Music

crios — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 11:19:59 -0800

What would be some good music with a theme of circles for pi day (3/14)? I'm a high school librarian and we are having a celebration in our library on Friday 3/13 for 3/14 (pi day). We're looking for some music that has a circular theme or pie (pi) theme.

Our list so far is:
Ring of Fire - Johnny Cash
Proud Mary - Creedence Clearwater Revival
Spinning Wheel - Blood Sweat and Tears
American Pie - Don McLean
Round and Round - Ratt
Dizzy - Tommy Roe
Round Here - Counting Crows
Round Here - Temptations
Circle of Life - Elton John
I Get Around - Beach Boys
Around the World - Daft Punk - (Radio edit)
Red Rubber Ball - The Cyrkle
You Spin Me Round (Like a Record) - Dead or Alive

It has to be clean since we are a high school library and the song has to be loosely related to circles and pi (round, around, circle, dizzy, ring, etc...).

Extra points for a clean punk song that I can use.

How to be Magnum PI for Halloween?

Twinedog — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 15:58:19 -0800

How can I be a good Magnum PI for Halloween? What are the essential costume pieces?Curly Wig, fake mustache, tigers hat, Ray Ban cop sunglasses, blue jeans and Hawaiin shirt? Can't afford the ferrari whats a funny way to reference it?

Online article on pi vs. two pi radians in a circle

Mapes — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 18:35:47 -0800

Please help me find an online article on how things would be so much better if a circle contained pi radians instead of two pi radians. As I remember it, the article bemoans the current definition of a radian and discusses some interesting alternatives.

PI = Public Idiot?

lohmannn — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 07:17:24 -0800

As a kid in junior high, my friends and I used the expression "P.I." a lot. It stood for "public idiot", and we used it to make fun of someone when they did something foolish. Did we make it up, or has anyone else ever heard of it? Where did it come from (movie, book?)

How many digits of pi did you have to memorize?

inconsequentialist — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 19:52:01 -0800

Has anyone else ever had the insane/completely useless (save for its novelty) experience of having to memorize a certain number of digits of pi (52 in my case) for a middle school math class (or any class for that matter)? I had to do just that to pass my 6th grade math class. Was my teacher a little off or was she just trying to teach us the value of ..... something or other? (I still remember 26 digits, but that's as far as I can go.)

Boston PI?

Anonymous — Sun, 14 Jan 2007 13:07:53 -0800

Does anyone have a recommendation for a private investigator/detective in the Boston area? Any tips for finding the best one, or helpful experiences working with one to share? All of the ones I've found online look like they were made ten years ago by their brother when he was fooling around with html, they can't write a coherent sentence, and they sound like losers who became PIs so they could satisfy their ego...not very reassuring. This is for identifying the person my spouse is dating, and I don't want to hire some fool who will botch an investigation. Where do I start? (private answers can go to need.boston.pi@gmail.com) Thank you!

A sixth of a pi?

Navelgazer — Mon, 14 Aug 2006 15:55:06 -0800

An out-of-left-field question for the mathematicians regarding the possible link between pi and the number 6 in geometry. If you take a group of seven identical (for all intents) objects with a circular base (try it with coins or bottles, for instance) you can arrange them most tightly by having six of the bottles or coins surround the central one, with each outer bottle also touching both adjacent outer bottles. Mathematically I can't understand why this would be the case with the number 6 specifically, and as I'm more of the right-brained-twinkie type, my background in math doesn't come anywhere near figuring it out. Can y'all help?

Pi is exactly 3!

obiwanwasabi — Tue, 20 Dec 2005 14:54:22 -0800

Did we really not know pi to more than 740 decimal places before 1947? The preamble to the poem Near A Raven claims that "this poem could not have been written prior to 1947, since all the details of the rule it uses were not known before then."

Wikipedia says that "The Iranian mathematician and astronomer, Ghyath ad-din Jamshid Kashani, 1350-1439, computed π to 9 digits in the base of 60, which is equivalent to 16 decimal digits as: 2 π = 6.2831853071795865."

If some guy could calculate pi to 16 decimal places in the 12th or 13th century, why did it take so long to get to 740?

Pi shaped pie pan.

mto — Tue, 04 Oct 2005 21:00:08 -0800

I am looking for a pie pan shaped like Pi. I need to make a pie for an upcoming pie party and I thought it would be fun to do it in the shape of the Pi symbol. If I can't find a pan I'll probably cut the shape of Pi into the top, but I was hoping one exists. However, Google hasn't turned up anything yet. Anyone know where I can find one online?

From the e to the i to the e to the i pi.

ORthey — Tue, 26 Apr 2005 08:41:24 -0800

Can someone give me a reasonably simple explanation of why e raised to the power of i times pi is equal to -1? I've always had trouble understanding this and thought I'd try the green.

Life of Pi

grefo — Sat, 19 Jun 2004 09:11:20 -0800

I just finished "Life of Pi" and I don't get it. I think I'm suffering from reading for the sake of reading and missed something along the way. Anyone care to share their take on this novel?