The Discovery of pi
Some base-ic problems
The pi of Science
Other pi Problems
Misc Trivia
100
After 208 days of computation and 182 days of verification, in October 2014 Alexander Yee’s computer calculated THIS RECORD-HIGH MANY DIGITS of Pi.
What is 13 trillion (13,000,000,000,000)?
100
THIS is the formal definition of pi.
What is pi := circumference/diameter? Note: True in Euclidean geometry.
100
At just $35 dollar for the base board, THIS is the most technologically advanced flavor of pie.
What is the Raspberry Pi computer board?
100
A rope is wrapped tightly around a theoretically circular Earth at the equator. The rope would have to be THIS MUCH LONGER so that the rope is exactly 1 foot above the surface around the entire Earth.
What is 2*pi feet?
100
"The Life of Pi" is a Canadian fantasy adventure novel, not about cooking or food, but rather an Indian boy who is stranded on a lifeboat with THIS CHARACTER.
What is Richard Parker, a Bengal tiger?
200
The earliest known reference to pi is a Middle Kingdom papyrus scroll, written by Ahmes the scribe in THIS CENTURY.
What is 17th c. BC? (around 1650 BC)
200
The approximation of pi in base 2 rounded to the 3rd decimal point (to the ⅛ place) is THIS.
What is 11.001? NOTE: Tip for converting fractions to other bases.
200
Of the three known “strong” chemical bonds, THIS BOND TYPE is the most complex to study. For example, we can look at the symmetry of one by counting the number of sigma, pi, delta, and phi bonds that comprise it.
What is covalent bond?
200
Interestingly, the period for one full small oscillation of a simple pendulum of finite length in ideal conditions is independent of the point mass on the pully, as shown in THIS FORMULA for the period.
What is 2Pi*sqrt(h/g), where h is the length of the pulley, and g is the gravitational constant?
200
The mathematical constant pi is represented by the lowercase Greek letter pi, as opposed to the uppercase Greek letter Pi, which represents THIS -- a person who brings a case against another in a court of law -- in legal shorthand.
What is the plaintiff?
300
Although William Jones is credited with assigning the symbol for pi in 1706 in the phrase “1/2 Periphery (π)”, it wasn’t widely used until THIS FAMOUS MATHEMATICIAN, whom the famous identity e^i*pi + 1 = 0 was named after -- started using it in his publications a few decades later.
Who is Leonard Euler?
300
THIS DIGIT is missing from the first 30 digits of pi decimal expansion.
What is 0? (First 33 digits are: 3.14159265358979323846264338327950)
300
In number theory, the lowercase Greek letter pi also denotes THIS SPECIAL FUNCTION, which Gauss and Legendre conjectured in the 18th century to be approximately n/ln(n).
What is the prime-counting function? (pi(n) = the number of primes <= n)
300
A dart board is made of 5 concentric circles of radius 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 inches units inscribed in a 10x10 square inch poster. The 6 regions of the board have point values of 7, 5, 3, 2, and 0 points (going form the center of the board outwards). If you throw two darts and both land somewhere on the board, the probability that your total score will be an odd number is THIS COMMON FRACTION.
What is 819*pi^2/5000?
300
Pi and P are both in the THIS POSITION of the Greek and Latin alphabet, respectively.
What is 16? NOTE: The order is Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, Epsilon, Zeta, Eta, Theta, Iota, Kappa, Lambda, Mu, Nu, Xi, Omicron, Pi; A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P
400
According to Jörg Arndt and Christoph Haene only THIS MANY digits are necesary to calculate the volume of the known universe with a precision of one atom.
What is 39?
400
How many times does MAMS appear in the first 31,415,929 base 27 digits of pi (in base 27)?
What is 61?
400
In particle physics, pions were found in THIS DECADE to be examples of Hideki Yukawa’s concept of mesons, which had been proposed a few years before World War 2.
What are the 1940’s? Note: Yukawa became the first Japanese Nobel laureate in 1949, just a few years after the discover of charged pions in 1947 (and just a few years after the end of World War 2 in 1945).
400
The probability that any two random integers is relatively prime is THIS COMMON FRACTION. It is also approximately 10% greater chance than the probability that 2 people in a room of 23 people have the same birthday.
What is 6/(pi^2)? (approximately 60.79 percent)
400
Michael Keith’s Not A Wake is the first book written fully in Pilish with the word lengths corresponding to the digits of pi. Thus, it uses a special type of THIS writing, the opposite of free writing.
What is constrained writing? NOTE: Not A Wake is divided into ten sections, each with 1000 digits and a different writing style (such as a section of 97 haikus, or a movie screenplay). You can read this book on Kindle for the low price of pi dollars!
500
The Feynman point, the earliest occurrence of the string 999999 in the decimal expansion of pi, begins at THIS DECIMAL POSITION.
What is 762? Note: Named after Richard Feynman, who wanted to be able to recite the first 762 digits, followed by six 9s and “and so on,” cheekily suggesting that pi is rational.
500
The value of 1/9 = 0.111… in base pi is THIS.
What is 1/2.14? NOTE: Solve with infinite geometric series formula!
500
In 1897 a state House of Representatives of THIS US STATE -- nicknamed the "Hoosier State" -- unanimously passed a bill that set pi equal to 3.2 and 16/(sqrt 3), which equals approximately 9.2376. One folk etymology of "Hoosier" is the friendly call "Who's there?" by frontier people who didn't want to get accidentally shot visiting strangers. Whether or not it's true, it's a shame that whoever proposed this bill hadn't been shot before doing so!
What is Indiana? Note: This Indiana Pi Bill attempted to describe a method to “square the circle,” which was proven impossible in 1882 because pi is transcendental, not algebraic. Needless to say, it was not passed in the State Senate nor anywhere else.
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