While world record holders may have memorized more than 70,000 digits of pi, a JPL engineer explains why you really only need a tiny fraction of that for most calculations – even at NASA.
The observable universe is the size of forty of those circles (or pies, shortened to “pi”).
No… Pi is a unitless number representing half a circles angular size.
Forty in the title is the number of digits, the title means that the relative size of the universe compared to a hydrogen atom is 1 followed by 40 zeros. Pi needs to be known to that accuracy to have a proper amount of significant figures.
Imagine trying to measure an ant with an unmarked foot long ruler. Not going to work super well. Your measurement uncertainty is +/- 6 in or 0.5ft. Well above the size of any ant.
Adding in inch marks improves that to +/- 0.5 in or +/- 0.042 ft. Closer to some ants, maybe about right, still not going to give you a measure of the ant but you’ll be able to say if it’s more or less than that. Now measure a circle with this ruler, to get the full accuracy of the ruler, you need only know pi to 4 digits., 3.142. Roughly. Actual uncertainty has some additional stuff going on, but without getting into it there you go.
No… Pi is a unitless number representing half a circles angular size.
Forty in the title is the number of digits, the title means that the relative size of the universe compared to a hydrogen atom is 1 followed by 40 zeros. Pi needs to be known to that accuracy to have a proper amount of significant figures.
Imagine trying to measure an ant with an unmarked foot long ruler. Not going to work super well. Your measurement uncertainty is +/- 6 in or 0.5ft. Well above the size of any ant.
Adding in inch marks improves that to +/- 0.5 in or +/- 0.042 ft. Closer to some ants, maybe about right, still not going to give you a measure of the ant but you’ll be able to say if it’s more or less than that. Now measure a circle with this ruler, to get the full accuracy of the ruler, you need only know pi to 4 digits., 3.142. Roughly. Actual uncertainty has some additional stuff going on, but without getting into it there you go.
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