Re: Pi with bad calculator

On Sun, 18 Mar 2007, BioFreak wrote:

While vacationing in the Ozarks you're stuck with a
little piece of grocery store calculator whose
extravagance doesn't go beyond a mere square root
button. But you're doing a back of the envelope
calculation of something that begs for a value for Pi
way better than 3.1415 which you can remember for sure.
Other than cursing yourself for not remembering the
next few digits what else can you do to manage?

Of course, you mean 3.1416 as the 5 digit approximation.

There are the usual mnemonics such as "How I need a drink. Alcoholic, of
course, after the heavy chapters involving quantum mechanics."

Or rational approximations such as 355/113, known for about 1.5 millenia,
allowing you to get 7 digits of precision through memorisation of a mere
6!

--
Timo Nieminen - Home page: http://www.physics.uq.edu.au/people/nieminen/
E-prints: http://eprint.uq.edu.au/view/person/Nieminen,_Timo_A..html
Shrine to Spirits: http://www.users.bigpond.com/timo_nieminen/spirits.html
.

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