Thread: 100,000 digits of pi

Originally Posted by PJYelton

Axon, sorry bud but I gotta call you on this, how can you be so harsh on the Davinci Code yet defend National Treasure? They are essentially the exact same story written the exact same way.

hehehe

I was going to mention that, too.

I think you guys are missing the point. I never claimed that the idea behind the book was bad, I'm claiming that Brown is a bad author. Lucky, I also enjoyed the STORY in the book, but did not like the way it was written. I liked the movie for the quick paced entertainment. These genres are totally different...I don't expect a book to be like a movie and vice versa; I expect much more from a book.

>>you are probably one of these folks who wants to be more "highbrow" than those around and attempts to demonstrate it by bashing everything overwhelmingly successful in popular media.<<

I certainly hope I'm not one of those people too bad your opinion of me is like that.

>>The premise, plot, and characters were very well developed and I cannot see any valid reason for such comments based on just this book. Eh.<<

I might agree on the premise here...but the plot was ridiculous; the characters were not at all developed! Such things work in movies but not in books.

edit:: that is why I think this story will make a much better movie than it was a book.

>>Out of curiosity, do you spend a lot of time "within the literary community" or is this just what you read by others who can write "worth sh!t?" Just curious.<<

To sustain your curiosity: I do spend quite a bit of time in various literary circles; I also read quite a bit for pleasure and study literature extensively.

I find it very surprising that you don't think there was any character development. But, eh...
I think we've all said what we've wanted to say and we're at a good point to stop any discussion (or more accurately, "arguing") of the topic. But let me close by saying that I find it very humorous that you, axon, are complaining about the lack of a person's writing abilities by using the phrase "[he] can't write worth sh!t." Heheheh. Now, you gotta admit that that's just funny.

Originally Posted by Darkness

PI shows up in other places too. If you have lines equally spaced apart and parallel, and you have a needle that is exactly equal to the spacing between these lines, the probability that the needle, when thrown completely at random, will intersect one of the lines is equal to 2/PI. So, you could evaluate the number PI by doing this experiment a whole bunch of times. Just another neat thing. Plus PI shows up in God's formula (also known as Euler's formula). It's just kind of neat stuff in general.

hmm looks like I might now join the other side to save myself from embarrassment... i thought the word random had more meaning...

Originally Posted by Darkness

PI shows up in other places too. If you have lines equally spaced apart and parallel, and you have a needle that is exactly equal to the spacing between these lines, the probability that the needle, when thrown completely at random, will intersect one of the lines is equal to 2/PI. So, you could evaluate the number PI by doing this experiment a whole bunch of times.

Proof please.

Besides, I never said there wasn't anything special about pi, just that this "golden number" thing was nonsense.

Originally Posted by Govtcheez

Proof please.

I think what he is refering to is Buffon's Needle Problem, one link to a proof (I haven't looked at it too deeply) can be found here. The probability is shown to be 2a/kPi where a is the length of the needle and k is the distance between the lines. Of course when a=k this resolves to 2/Pi.

Originally Posted by hk_mp5kpdw

I think what he is refering to is Buffon's Needle Problem, one link to a proof (I haven't looked at it too deeply) can be found here. The probability is shown to be 2a/kPi where a is the length of the needle and k is the distance between the lines. Of course when a=k this resolves to 2/Pi.

Thank you. This is the kind of thing that constitutes "proof", not some site claiming you can use the golden ratio to make a ton of cash on the stock market.

That was the plot of PI (film by Darren Aranofski) - its quite a good film,
i hadnt realised that someone had actually tried to prove it!
disappointingly though the starting credits state PI incorrectly

Like I said, I don't necessarily buy the importance of phi and the human body, but phi appears a lot in nature, most notably in plants. Heres a webpage that describes a lot of that as well as one that explains why:

http://www.mcs.surrey.ac.uk/Personal...ci/fibnat.html
http://www.mcs.surrey.ac.uk/Personal...i/fibnat2.html

>>are complaining about the lack of a person's writing abilities by using the phrase "[he] can't write worth sh!t." Heheheh.<<

I'm posting at an internet forum; are you comparing this to anyother kind-of writing? come on now.

If I were to say "Boy, that thar Danny Browns doesn't not knowing how'nt to writes and such and him couldn't even knows how to spelling ritely!," in a serious manner, wouldn't you find it a tad humorous? Try laughing at yourself once in a while. Life will be a lot more enjoyable that way.

It's a good quality to be able to not take every word someone says so seriously. Honestly, axon, lighten up a little.

Btw, I had a look at your photos and find a few of them to be very well done. I myself am an avid, amateur and not completely knowledgable or experienced, but very passionate photographer. I can't wait for my trip to Hawaii in January to try capturing some once-in-a-lifetime shots. Perhaps I will be able to take a few shots demonstrating Pi and/or Phi in action in paradise (to keep on topic).

>>It's a good quality to be able to not take every word someone says so seriously. Honestly, axon, lighten up a little.<<

Yes I've been known to tak some things way too seriously

Btw, I had a look at your photos and find a few of them to be very well done. I myself am an avid, amateur and not completely knowledgable or experienced, but very passionate photographer. I can't wait for my trip to Hawaii in January to try capturing some once-in-a-lifetime shots. Perhaps I will be able to take a few shots demonstrating Pi and/or Phi in action in paradise (to keep on topic).

thanks. Look forward to looking at yours when you get back also, I will be uploading a few pics to that gallery in the upcomming days.

edit:: just added somepics of the cloud gate from Millenium Park in Chicago. Those who frequent FD saw them already