Posted on 02/20/2016 2:09:29 PM PST by MtnClimber
"God is a pure mathematician!" declared British astronomer Sir James Jeans. The physical Universe does seem to be organised around elegant mathematical relationships. And one number above all others has exercised an enduring fascination for physicists: 137.03599913.
Let me explain. When scientists measure any quantity they must specify the units being used. The speed of light, for example, is either 186,000 or 300,000 depending on whether it is expressed as miles per second or kilometres per second. Likewise your weight might be 150 or 68 according to whether you are measuring in pounds or kilograms. Without knowing the units being used the number is meaningless - unless it is a pure number.
The best known example of a pure number comes from combining three of nature's most fundamental quantities: the speed of light, the electric charge carried by a single electron and Planck's constant of quantum mechanics. In symbols, that's c, e and h. Put them together as follows, hc/2Ï€e2, and the units of c, e and h cancel out to leave a pure number, 137.03599913. If c, e and h were measured by Vulcan scientists using Vulcan units, they would still get 137.03599913. This curious number is therefore a universal constant of nature - "God given" Jeans might have said.
In view of its importance, hc/2πe2 has acquired a name and a symbol all of its own. For historical reasons the inverse, 2πe2/hc = 1/137.03599913, is used. It is known as the fine-structure constant and is denoted by the Greek letter alpha (α).
(Excerpt) Read more at cosmosmagazine.com ...
Bump chase I’m an idiot and want to look smart.
One is the loneliest number.
Chase=cause
No kidding!
It must be the one from the wave equations because they show how quantum tunneling occurs. Not just theory, but how tunnel diodes actually work. (the disappearing cat got tunneled)
And Zer0 is in the White House." :(
...and i^i = e^(-pi/2)
22/7 = 3.1428571428577143
Actual 3.1415926535897932
A mnemonic for remembering pi to twenty-one places ...
How I wish I could recollect pi.
“Eureka,” cried the great inventor.
“Christmas pudding, Christmas pie,
is the problem’s very center!”
Maybe I can avoid the smart symbol for Pi by using 22/7 and everyone will understand, of course!
“The odds of that happening...”
Wow, just how many universes did you visit and measure to collect enough data for your conclusion?
Is the Pi approximation like terminating a Taylor Series approximation?
Was his alive or dead?
I suppose it depends on whether
or not your interstitial migration
is asymptotic.
I can't associate the little jingle to the decimals, sorry. Kind of preoccupied with something else today, was trying to get my mind off it.
In the jingle, the number of letters in each word is a number in the pi sequence, so that “How I wish” becomes 314. Just insert the decimal point after the three, and pi to 21 places can be found. Great for parties. ;)
I’ve seen Pi in bases other than 10, example, 7 and 12. So, what would happen...?
Do you mean, in different bases would it show up in the same smart symbol gibberish? I think so.
Exactly like terminating Taylor. You can get pi from the simple series 4*Taylor(arctan(1)), or more efficiently from the somewhat uglier 2*Taylor(arcsin(1)). /MathNerd
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