HP Forum Archive 21

[ Return to Index | Top of Index ]

Calculating Pi Message #1 Posted by LHH on 21 Sept 2013, 12:38 a.m. I was thinking of calculating Pi for fun and found this: http://www.wikihow.com/Calculate-Pi-by-Throwing-Frozen-Hot-Dogs May be old news here!

Re: Calculating Pi Message #2 Posted by Dieter on 21 Sept 2013, 6:35 a.m., in response to message #1 by LHH Quote: May be old news here! I do not know if this has been discussed here earlier, but this experimental way of evaluating Pi actually is a well known method. However, the original implementation does not use hot dogs and floor tiles, but a box of pins and a sheet of squared paper. ;-) BTW, I own a more than 30 years old book with sample programs for teaching computer science. One of the shown Pi-algorithms actually is this experimental toss-a-hot-dog method. Dieter

Re: Calculating Pi Message #3 Posted by Gerson W. Barbosa on 21 Sept 2013, 6:53 a.m., in response to message #2 by Dieter That's the wurst way to calculate Pi, IMO :-) Gerson.

Re: Calculating Pi Message #4 Posted by Paul Dale on 21 Sept 2013, 7:27 a.m., in response to message #3 by Gerson W. Barbosa Buffon's needle I believe. I'm sure a worse way to calculate PI can be invented :) - Pauli

Re: Calculating Pi Message #5 Posted by Gerson W. Barbosa on 21 Sept 2013, 7:48 a.m., in response to message #4 by Paul Dale Quote: Buffon's needle I believe. Yes. Quote: I'm sure a worse way to calculate PI can be invented :) Yes, like the one above that uses wursts instead of needles :-) Gerson.

Re: Calculating Pi Message #6 Posted by Paul Dale on 21 Sept 2013, 8:20 a.m., in response to message #5 by Gerson W. Barbosa I was trying to come up with a formula for PI based on the divergence of the sum of the reciprocals of the primes, a very very slowly diverging series. No success at this point :( - Pauli

Re: Calculating Pi Message #7 Posted by Les Koller on 22 Sept 2013, 9:01 p.m., in response to message #3 by Gerson W. Barbosa "The wurst way"...OMG you guys are impossible! That's why I love you all. And yes, Buffon's needle...dropping needles on a flag

Re: Calculating Pi Message #8 Posted by Kimberly Thompson on 22 Sept 2013, 7:27 a.m., in response to message #1 by LHH LHH some helpful references; Link to Buffon's Needle 1.0 Link to Pi Day's ramblings Link to Random simulation (and stimulation) Link to Pi day - Calculate Pi on your 15C Link to HPCC Magazine Datafile V25 BEST! SlideRule

Re: Calculating Pi Message #9 Posted by LHH on 25 Sept 2013, 6:49 p.m., in response to message #8 by Kimberly Thompson Thanks for these links! Looks like I'll be busy for a while! And forgive the delay, had to wait until I was on the computer that logs me in automatically. Can't seem to remember how to do that when I'm away from my main machine (its 24" CRT monitor frame is covered in sticky notes with all my logins!). Getting old!

Re: Calculating Pi Message #10 Posted by Gerson W. Barbosa on 27 Sept 2013, 10:50 p.m., in response to message #9 by LHH I have presented a few empirical formulas to speed up Archimede's Method here and here. In the second link there's an hp 50g program to compute pi to 1,000 places in "only" three hours using such method . Other very interesting pi-related links in there as well. Edited: 27 Sept 2013, 11:06 p.m.

[ Return to Index | Top of Index ]

Go back to the main exhibit hall