Happy Tau Day!

FISMA

Happy belated Tau day math people! 6-28

If you celebrated Pi day on March 14th, I thought you would find this interesting.

'Tau day' marked by opponents of maths constant pi

By Jason Palmer Science and technology reporter, BBC News
Fans of tau suggest it makes more sense than pi when describing fractions of a circle
Continue reading the main story
The mathematical constant pi is under threat from a group of detractors who will be marking "Tau Day" on Tuesday.


Tau Day revellers suggest a constant called tau should take its place: twice as large as pi, or about 6.28 - hence the 28 June celebration.


Tau proponents say that for many problems in maths, tau makes more sense and makes calculations easier.


Not all fans of maths agree, however, and pi's rich history means it will be a difficult number to unseat.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-13906169

Davidius

The whole thing reeks of a non-issue and it kind of irks me that anybody would take it up seriously. Even in teaching I would imagine anybody that can't get past pi being half a rotation rather than a full rotation has missed the point anyway.

I can't see a huge justification to start switching to tau and phasing out pi. The amount of effort to phase out something so ubiquitous seems too large for a return that is so trivial.

Ideally, we'd probably use Tau instead of Pi, but the effort of changing probably outweighs the small benefits.

Then again, even Pi's proponents named a day after a number, so I guess there's a common theme of being interested in inessential details throughout mathematics.

FISMA

I was actually wondering what to eat on Tau day!

Am I the only one that eats pie on π day?

I was wondering what to eat on Tau day? The only thing I could think of would be hamburgers.

Tau - like Taurus, the bull - hamburgers.

Davidius

2 pies I suppose.

Fremen

Davidius wrote: »

The whole thing reeks of a non-issue and it kind of irks me that anybody would take it up seriously.

I'm not so sure about that. I read an article on tau a while ago, and it convinced me that there really was something there.

Qiaochu Yuan has some worthwhile comments too.

If you ask me, the value of the tau/pi debate comes from the idea that tau is in some sense more fundamental than pi is, not that the formulas are simplified.

I was actually wondering what to eat on Tau day

Taublerone?
...I'll get my coat.

FISMA

Davidius wrote: »

2 pies I suppose.

The simplest solution is often the best!

bnt

[latex]\displaystyle
{e^{\frac{i\tau}{2}} + 1 = 0}[/latex] ?

I don't think so ...

Fremen

bnt wrote: »

[latex]\displaystyle
{e^{\frac{i\tau}{2}} + 1 = 0}[/latex] ?

I don't think so ...

Yes, but exp(i tau) is equal to 1. Arguably a nicer formula...

Davidius

Fremen wrote: »

I'm not so sure about that. I read an article on tau a while ago, and it convinced me that there really was something there.

Qiaochu Yuan has some worthwhile comments too.

If you ask me, the value of the tau/pi debate comes from the idea that tau is in some sense more fundamental than pi is, not that the formulas are simplified.

I have no doubt that tau is in many ways more fundamental than pi and I'd admit to the choice of C/d is probably a bad one. The celebration of pi is mostly silly anyway so I don't think the fact that people are worshipping the wrong number is a big issue to be concerned about. Personally I like the sight of 2pi, maybe just because I'm used to seeing it.

Fremen wrote: »

Yes, but exp(i tau) is equal to 1. Arguably a nicer formula...

But exp(z) = 1 already has a solution at z=0 and it seems more fitting (to me at least) to have the principle value of ln(1) be 0 rather than itau. e^z + 1 = 0 at least has the advantage of having no real solution and z = ipi done looks purty.