i like key lime, myself
Mar. 14th, 2011 01:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ironymaidenyoutube vid (pleasant, includes fruit pie): why pi is (mostly) wrong (or alternately, a text reference)
tl;dr is that we might have an easier time teaching this stuff if we based circle math on radius instead of diameter.
which led to a conversation at lunch about when humans codified pi (pretty damn early) and why diameter? i posited that using diameter comes from the ease of drawing/visualizing it freehand, a radius wants a compass.
but this tau discussion reminds me of something that i had a hard time swallowing as a kid studying math: "wait, this is all arbitrary?"
tl;dr is that we might have an easier time teaching this stuff if we based circle math on radius instead of diameter.
which led to a conversation at lunch about when humans codified pi (pretty damn early) and why diameter? i posited that using diameter comes from the ease of drawing/visualizing it freehand, a radius wants a compass.
but this tau discussion reminds me of something that i had a hard time swallowing as a kid studying math: "wait, this is all arbitrary?"
