Thursday, June 28, 2012

Happy Tau Day

One of the more tragic path dependencies is that years ago someone defined π (aka pi) as ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter, as opposed to its radius. If you define τ(tau)=2π, it's like a presbyopic putting on reading glasses for the first time. It turns out, switching from π to τ makes a lot of other corollaries less convoluted, including the 'world's most beautiful formula' e=-1, which would be e=1.

 

3 comments:

Mercury said...

Cool!
Can we have a mean deviation day?

http://www.leeds.ac.uk/educol/documents/00003759.htm

BlackRaven said...

i think it is the more beautiful statement, because e(i*pi)+1 = 0 has 5 key numbers in there, rather than 4.

Anonymous said...

Reminds me of Buckminster Fuller's more simple and elegant explanations:
* Using words "up and down" are incorrect..rather things go "in and out" from the center of the sphere (earth.)
* Everything is built up from hydrogen.
* Geometry is triangled, not squared. Ex: 2 triangled = 4 sides (like a tetrahedron).