PI day again

Whatdya know ?! Its PI day again. I remember posting on this day, last year about the same event and now, here we are again ! And in case you didn’t know, today is also the birthday of ‘Dr. Einstein’ of the E=mc2 fame 😉
Here’s a tribute to this magic number, π:

History:

  • Biblical References: I Kings 7:23 II Chronicles 4:2
    In Kings, it states, “And he made a molten sea, ten cubits from one brim to the other: it was round all about, and a line of thirty cubits did compass it about.”

  • In 240 B.C, Archimedes of Syracuse, Sicily (287 – 212 BC) did the first theoretical calculation of . He used methods similar to the ones used by Euclid by inscribing a regular polygon inside a circle. He started with a hexagon and then polygons of 12, 24, 48, and finally 96 sides. He also used one of Euclid’s theorems to develop a numerical method for calculating the perimeter of the polygons. Archimedes obtained the approximation 223/71 < π < 22/7.

  • 150 A.D. Ptolemy found π to be approximately 377/120 (or 3.1416)

  • 480 A.D. In China, pi was found to be approximately equal to 355/113 or 3.1415929 …

  • 1150 Bhaskara (a Hindu) gave 3927/1250 as an accurate value of π

  • 1579 Viete used polygons having 393,216 sides to evaluate π correct to 9 places

  • 1610 Van Ceulen used 2^62 sides to compute π to 35 decimal places

  • 1949 ENIAC (first modern computer) spent 70 hours to compute π to 2,037 places

  • In September 2002, π was computed to 1,240,000,000,000 decimal places by Professor Yasumasa Kanada at the University of Tokyo. It took over 400 hours on a Hitachi Supercomputer.

Facts and interesting stuff:

  • All the digits of Pi can never be fully known.
  • William Jones, a self-taught English mathematician born in Wales, is the one who selected the Greek letter π for the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter in 1706.
  • Thirty divided by ten gives a value of 3. However, it is interesting to note that the word circumference happens to be spelled with an extra letter. Since in Hebrew all letters are also numbers, if we take the ratio of the value for the word as it is written (111) to the normal spelled word (106) we get the number 1.047169811… If you multiply this number by 3 you get 3.141509434… An amazingly close approximation to π!
  • The 1983 Guinness Book of World Records lists Rajan Mahadevan from India as having recited 31,811 places of pi from memory !
  • PI poem by Lorreen Pelletier: The number of letters in each line corresponds to a digit in the number &#960, up to 35 decimal places.
  • The value of π can be computed using the fibonacci sequence ! Link.
  • How do you prove that the π exists ?? Here’s an interesting theory.
  • Can you decipher the digits of π using a Sanskrit sloka ? Here’s a demonstration. Interesting read !
  • Here’s π to 1000 digits:
    3. 14159 26535 89793 23846 26433 83279 50288 41971 69399 37510 58209 74944 59230 78164 06286 20899 86280 34825 34211 70679 82148 08651 32823 06647 09384 46095 50582 23172 53594 08128 48111 74502 84102 70193 85211 05559 64462 29489 54930 38196 44288 10975 66593 34461 28475 64823 37867 83165 27120 19091 45648 56692 34603 48610 45432 66482 13393 60726 02491 41273 72458 70066 06315 58817 48815 20920 96282 92540 91715 36436 78925 90360 01133 05305 48820 46652 13841 46951 94151 16094 33057 27036 57595 91953 09218 61173 81932 61179 31051 18548 07446 23799 62749 56735 18857 52724 89122 79381 83011 94912 98336 73362 44065 66430 86021 39494 63952 24737 19070 21798 60943 70277 05392 17176 29317 67523 84674 81846 76694 05132 00056 81271 45263 56082 77857 71342 75778 96091 73637 17872 14684 40901 22495 34301 46549 58537 10507 92279 68925 89235 42019 95611 21290 21960 86403 44181 59813 62977 47713 09960 51870 72113 49999 99837 29780 49951 05973 17328 16096 31859 50244 59455 34690 83026 42522 30825 33446 85035 26193 11881 71010 00313 78387 52886 58753 32083 81420 61717 76691 47303 59825 34904 28755 46873 11595 62863 88235 37875 93751 95778 18577 80532 17122 68066 13001 92787 66111 95909 21642 01989 …
  • Here’s a palindrome for you : “I prefer PI” !!
  • e raised to the i*pi power equals -1 (e is the base of the natural logarithm and i is the imaginary number which is the sqare root of -1)

Alternate π addendum:

Book:
The life of PI – Here PI is an Indian guy’s name who gets stranded in the sea for more than 250 days. Its a good read although it has nothing to do with the π we are dealing with here. Just thought that might be an interesting trivia !
Movie:
PI – The movie starts with the line “When I was a little kid, my mother told me not to stare into the sun, so when I was six I did…”. Now with a line like that, how could i not watch it ! I’d recommend this movie to anyone who’s a little perceptive and frankly, a bit obsessed on math or anything for that matter. I watched the movie and loved it but few of my friends hated me for recommending the movie. So, there you go. But seriously, if you get some time, and are a math fan, watch it !

My Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving. What is it ? Why is the dinner on Thanksgiving day such a big deal here in the U.S ? I’ve asked many people about that and have received varying interesting answers. Here’s a brief analysis of this holiday from my perspective.

History

The fourth Thursday in November, Thanksgiving Day, in the US is celebrated traditionally to give thanks to God for the things one has at the close of the harvest season.

Parallels

US – Thanksgiving : Fourth thursday in November
India – Pongal : Middle of January
Canada – Thanksgiving : Second monday in October
UK – Harvest festival : Full moon day in September
Germany – Erntedank : First sunday of October

A holiday by any other name, still is sweeeet !

Evolution

The modern day Thanksgiving seems to have diverged far from its origins and is usually marked with parades, huge family meals, wall-to-wall american football. The festival has become a commercial event bringing together family and friends for feast and marks the start of the official holiday season in US.

Nonetheless, in the basic principle of thanking God or whoever else they feel most obliged to do so, families do get together even amidst rigorous schedules. And that is probably the important aspect about any holiday – bringing people closer.

My Thanksgiving nostalgia

I was invited to a very informal Thanksgiving dinner by few friends. For my part, i made few delicious Rasagulla for dessert which by the way did not hit it off among everyone here. Sigh. Anyway, the dinner eventhough did not involve any traditional thanking speeches and toasts, still brought a deep nostalgic feeling that claws the heart. And needless to say, i watched a lot of american football games over the past few days even if i still think that it does not match the intensity of a soccer game. But hey, thats just me.

The point of that short ramble is that even a very informal dinner on such an occasion managed to bring back sweet memories into my fragile little mind. These new friends remind me of those old ones and family, so far away in India. And there lies the beauty of a holiday !

The closer the day of my visit to India draws in, the more i feel nostalgic over every simple action. 12 days and counting …

History : Why drive on the left ?

<p>
  The papal system prevailed until the late 1700s, when teamsters in the United States and France began hauling farm products in big wagons pulled by several pairs of horses. These wagons had no driver&#8217;s seat. Instead the driver sat on the left rear horse, so he could keep his right arm free to lash the team. Since you were sitting on the left, naturally you wanted everybody to pass on the left so you could look down and make sure you kept clear of the other guy&#8217;s wheels. Ergo, you kept to the right side of the road. The first known keep-right law in the U.S. was enacted in Pennsylvania in 1792, and in the ensuing years many states and Canadian provinces followed suit.
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Ten Obscure Factoids about Albert Einstein

Telepathy. Is it real ?

XP Game hacks

The Hitchhiker’s Guide : Why 42 ?

Logic and math riddles

<p>
  The king sits in his central room and the n prisoners are all locked in their sound proof cells. In the king&#8217;s central chamber is a table with a single chalice sitting atop it. Now, the king opens up a door to one of the prisoners&#8217; rooms and lets him into the room, but always only one prisoner at a time! So he lets in just one of the prisoners, any one he chooses, and then asks him a question, &#8220;Since I first locked you and the other prisoners into your rooms, have all of you been in this room yet?&#8221; The prisoner only has two possible answers. &#8220;Yes,&#8221; or, &#8220;I&#8217;m not sure.&#8221; If any prisoner answers &#8220;yes&#8221; but is wrong, they all will be beheaded. If a prisoner answers &#8220;yes,&#8221; however, and is correct, all prisoners are granted full pardons and freed. After being asked that question and answering, the prisoner is then given an opportunity to turn the chalice upside down or right side up. If when he enters the room it is right side up, he can choose to leave it right side up or to turn it upside down, it&#8217;s his choice. The same thing goes for if it is upside down when he enters the room. He can either choose to turn it upright or to leave it upside down. After the prisoner manipulates the chalice (or not, by his choice), he is sent back to his own cell and securely locked in.
</p>

<p>
  The king will call the prisoners in any order he pleases, and he can call and recall each prisoner as many times as he wants, as many times in a row as he wants. The only rule the king has to obey is that eventually he has to call every prisoner in an arbitrary number of times. So maybe he will call the first prisoner in a million times before ever calling in the second prisoner twice, we just don&#8217;t know. But eventually we may be certain that each prisoner will be called in ten times, or twenty times, or any number you choose.
</p>

<p>
  Here&#8217;s one last monkey wrench to toss in the gears, though. The king is allowed to manipulate the cup himself, k times, out of the view of any of the prisoners. That means the king may turn an upright cup upside down or vice versa up to k times, as he chooses, without the prisoners knowing about it. This does not mean the king must manipulate the cup any number of times at all, only that he may.
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Freaky Test

Got this as a forward from a friend of mine and was told that this works for almost every person he knows. This only takes a second to do and it’s amazing!

Read on …

Have you ever wondered if your mind is normal or different? Well, do this little mind exercise (no need to write anything down) and find out at the end!!

Free will or synaptic wiring? You be the judge.

Check out the following exercise, guaranteed to raise an eyebrow.

Now, click on this link »

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  3+4 >></p> 
  
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    4+3 >></p> 
    
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      5+2 >></p> 
      
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        6+1 >></p> 
        
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          Now repeat saying the number 7 to yourself as fast as you can for 15 seconds. Then click here >></p> 
          
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            <p>
              QUICK!!! THINK OF A VEGETABLE! And then click here >>
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              Sorry, but gotta keep clickin >></p> 
              
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                You&#8217;re thinking of a CARROT, right?</p> 
                
                <p>
                  If not, you&#8217;re among the 2% of the population whose minds are different enough to think of something else. 98% of people will answer with carrot when given this exercise. Freaky, huh? Keep this message going. Forward it to people you know and see if they can see if they are usual or not.
                </p>
                
                <p>
                  I was skeptical first, but it worked for many of my classmates here too ! And needless to say, it worked for me 🙁 Now it really feels bad to be in the 98% rather than in that 2% doesn&#8217;t it ?!
                </p>
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Premiere de Cocktail

The first cocktail ever made was in Mesopotamia 5,000 years ago, using wine, beer, apple juice and honey. Patrick McGovern defined the mix as “grog”, an archaic drink in the United States is sold as the “Midas Touch”. McGovern, a University Professor at Pennsylvania, one of the most important authorities in chemistry applied in archaeology, presented the results of a research on the banks of the Tigris between Iran and Iraq. This was said at the first day of the international convention on the archaeological study of wine organised in Scansano (Grosseto), land of the Morellino, by the City of Wine National Association and the University of Siena. In his report, McGovern spoke of the history of the evolution of wine-making in the east and west, giving analyses that prove how in some terracotta containers found on the banks of the Tigris river there were traces of tartaric acid (obtained during grape fermentation), honey, apples and fermented barley (used in beer). ‘Grog’ was also used by Etruscans, as can be proved through some containers found in southern Tuscany. The convention highlighted that the sylvan grapes were present in Etruria 6,000 years ago, much before the Greeks’ wine culture. Basically the Etruscans knew wine, so its use could have been already known before the Greeks in the Mediterranean. (AGI) .

Link

Wow, cool. Did anyone know that there is an archaeological study of wine ?? It is just amazing what people end up doing for a lifetime. And yeah, next time i’m in a bar, I’m going to try the Midas Touch. I think it is going to be one sweet drink !