Meme of two women fighting while a man smokes from a pipe in the background.

The women fighting are labeled “mathematicians defining pi” and “engineers just using 3 because it’s within tolerance”

The man smoking is labeled “astrophysicists” and the pipe is labeled “pi = 1”

  • Bluewing@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    42
    ·
    1 day ago

    As a retired mechanical engineer, the joke is that we don’t really remember the value of Pi, but we think it’s somewhere around 3. But maybe we should use 4 just to be safe.

    In any case, I have to remember 3.14 because one of my Daughters was born on Pi Day. Which, according her, is the second most important day of the year, just right behind Christmas Day, when she was growing up. So when she got into high school that meant that we had to bring enough pie to be served in each of her math classes on that day. (Oddly enough she prefers cheese cake over pie on her Birthday).

    Now I’m not saying being born on Pi Day influenced her life any, but she has a PhD in Mech Engineering.

      • Bluewing@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        6 hours ago

        The last 4 years of my working life, I taught some math in my small rural local school. I introduced a tradition of calculating Pi from scratch by various “silly” means. All shamelessly stolen from Matt Parker of Standup Maths fame on Youtube. The students, (4th through 8th grade), were always highly entertained and may have accidentally learned some math…

        When you least expect it, Pi is there.

        • feddup@feddit.uk
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          4 hours ago

          Love Matt Parkers videos, makes math more fun, great to share it with the kids.