Prose in Pi

YouTube - Mathematical Pi, Pi Day Project

2007-11-20T15:40:00.000-08:00

Exploring Pi with Trigonometry

2006-11-07T08:17:00.000-08:00

Trigonometry that seems to have nothing to do with circles or anything having no angles does work in measuring tangent pi on angles on triangles with an area equal to or twice as large as that of a circle and having angles with pi or 2*pi in tangent.

pi-tan(72.343212845degrees) - Google Search -

My Excel sheets show how calculation was made and the relevant trigonometric function.

Excel Trigonometry

Now it is 100,000 decimal places - a claimed world record

2006-10-04T08:59:00.000-07:00

A Japanese mental health counselor who recited pi to 83,431 digits, setting a world record - now it is reported that he has yet to apply to the Guinness World Record - in July 2005 has broken his own record by reciting just 100,000 digits, reports Yahoo! News Man recites pi to 100,000 places (October 4, 2006).

The Guinness World Record or not, this is a feat accomplished by a man who is about to reach 60, age normally believed for retirement in Japan. As he says that "What I am aiming at is not just memorizing figures, I am thrilled by seeking a story in pi", Mr Haraguchi has an advantage no one but Japanese has, the flexible language that makes it possible to convert each figure to form a series of words or phrases as if he was a storyteller. It is made possible by the phonetic characteristics of Japanese.

Intrigued? It will not be too late to start learnig Japanese - ichi, ni, san, ...

Prose in Pi

2006-06-04T01:01:00.000-07:00

"May I tell a story purposing to render clear the ratio circular perimeter breadth, revealing one of the problems most famous in modern days, and the greatest man of science anciently known."
- said someone who tried, incredibly, to recite the first 31 digits of Pi. I have tried to use Excel to verify this to find that the commas and period should not be counted and otherwise it is correct. The number of letters in each of 31 words stands for the figure in each of 31 digits of Pi.

I was moved to spot this "story" in the blog of a math-curious Japanese. It is a nice phrase in itself, though I am not interested in literature, and just as impressive as the new Guinness-record winner, who could recite more than 80,000 digits of Pi.

Here is how I used Excel to calculate the number of each word in this "story". This would also be for those who cannot resist trying to challenge further. And Google may be useful to get insight to Pi as we wonder how to get started.

How to use the Google calculator

Golden Ratio

Google & Excel