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Pi question

the_monkey · 2014-02-18 12:47:48

Hi, Bit of a pointless question here, but I'm reading that Simon Singh book on the Simpsons and maths - it's ok , some interesting stuff in it but basic enough, anyway he says in it that the 40,000th digit of pi is 1, but according to Wolfram Alpha it's 5 ? http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=40000th+digit+of+pi I'm…

18-02-2014 12:47pm

#1

the_monkey

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Hi,
Bit of a pointless question here, but I'm reading that Simon Singh book on the Simpsons and maths - it's ok , some interesting stuff in it but basic enough,
anyway he says in it that the 40,000th digit of pi is 1, but according to Wolfram Alpha it's 5 ?

http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=40000th+digit+of+pi

I'm tending to believe Singh here, but the wolframalpha guys are no slouches either ...

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#2 18-02-2014 12:56pm
28064212

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Counting from the 3 or the 1? i.e.
3.14159265... 1 23456789...
Or
3.14159265... 12345678...
Assuming WA uses the first case, and Singh uses the second case, WA's 40,001st digit should be 1. And it is. That probably explains the disrepancy

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#3 18-02-2014 1:19pm

the_monkey

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of course,

http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=1st+digit+of+pi

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#4 19-02-2014 1:09am

Davidius

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Minor note that in the episode itself, Apu claims to know pi to 40000 places rather than digits.

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