this post was submitted on 14 Mar 2024
645 points (93.1% liked)

Science Memes

11189 readers
3040 users here now

Welcome to c/science_memes @ Mander.xyz!

A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.



Rules

  1. Don't throw mud. Behave like an intellectual and remember the human.
  2. Keep it rooted (on topic).
  3. No spam.
  4. Infographics welcome, get schooled.

This is a science community. We use the Dawkins definition of meme.



Research Committee

Other Mander Communities

Science and Research

Biology and Life Sciences

Physical Sciences

Humanities and Social Sciences

Practical and Applied Sciences

Memes

Miscellaneous

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] ns1@feddit.uk 153 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!

[–] zkfcfbzr@lemmy.world 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.

[–] danc4498@lemmy.world 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.

[–] magic_lobster_party@kbin.run 31 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Its decimal expansion is finite in the base pi.

[–] Steve@startrek.website 8 points 8 months ago (1 children)
[–] Eatspancakes84@lemmy.world 9 points 8 months ago (1 children)

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

[–] generaldenmark@programming.dev 2 points 8 months ago

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

[–] chillhelm@lemmy.world 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.

[–] cogman@lemmy.world 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.

[–] Carnelian@lemmy.world 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

[–] marcos@lemmy.world 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.

[–] Carnelian@lemmy.world 8 points 8 months ago (1 children)
[–] veniasilente@lemm.ee 2 points 8 months ago

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

[–] Zerush@lemmy.ml 2 points 8 months ago

I see, you were never at a Pink Floyd concert

[–] LanternEverywhere@kbin.social 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

[–] maniclucky@lemmy.world 4 points 8 months ago

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