Pi Quotes collected by Eve Andersson

Home : Pi : Quotes

The primary purpose of the DATA statement is to give names to constants; instead of referring to pi as 3.141592653589793 at every appearance, the variable PI can be given that value with a DATA statement and used instead of the longer form of the constant. This also simplifies modifying the program, should the value of pi change. -- FORTRAN manual for Xerox Computers "Just look at that", Currin said almost crossly as he pointed to the envelope of space under a hand in one of Rembrandt's portraits. "It's exact and indefinite. It's like pi--you can keep figuring it out and always be right and never be done." -- Peter Schjeldahl, quoting the painter John Currin. "The Elegant Scavenger." The New Yorker, February 22 and March 1, 1999, p. 175. pi   computing with, 211   obscure reference to, 168 --the index of Learning Perl by Randal L. Schwartz & Tom Christiansen, p. 265. (The obscure reference itself is less interesting than the fact that they wrote "obscure reference" in the index. The reference: \$buf = pack("s2 C*", 3141, 5926, 5, 3, 5, 8, 9, 7, 9, 3, 2);) Cosine, secant, tangent, sine 3.14159 Integral, radical, u dv, slipstick, slide rule, MIT!" --MIT cheer

Great Pi Day Gift! Los Boludos Made with original vintage vacuum tubes!

Comments

Ms.

Feeling somewhat ignorant but in awe of your fantastic website, so much I wish to understand:

What exactly is Pi?

How can it benefit us?

.....runs off, digs large hole, and hides indefinitely.....

-- Amanda Marsh

Obsession

Your site's cool. Any site about pi accentuates whatever obsession that I already have. Yeah for pi!!! -David Horton of Utah

-- David Horton

Looking for what?

Pi world's is so amazing, over all because we are looking for something that even we don't know exactly what it is.

This race have a finish?, or just depend about how much numbers the human know?

(sorry by my english)

"Human knoledge belongs to the world."

-- jose sanhueza

Mnemonics

A mnemonic device is a code or way of assisting your memory to recall sets of numbers or words. As a kid back in the 1950s, I had an old maid grade school teacher, Miss Irma Geyser, who taught us a mnemonic to remember "pi", the number of times that the diameter of a circle fits around its circumference, about 3 1/7 or 3.14. The well memorized phrase goes, "How I want a slice, pineapple or cherry." "Think of eating pie" she would say, "and then write down the phrase and count the letters of each word to arrive at pi to seven decimal places". How=3, I=1, want=4, a=1, slice=5, and so forth, to obtain 3.1415926. It wasn't until I entered college that I discovered that my old grade school teacher probably had borrowed the idea from the classical university physics gem: "How I want a drink, alcoholic of course, after dry lofty lectures outlining quantum mechanics", the mnemonic for 3.14159265358979 (pi to 14 decimal places). Reprinted from Doc Finstuen's monthly byline column "You Bet Your Life" which appeared in the November 1996 issue of Gaming Times Magazine, page 21, in an article entitled "Casinos Toll Free? Dial 1-800-Mnemonic!". Doc Finstuen is a Ph.D. statistician and graduate school professor at a university in southwestern Texas.

-- kenn finstuen

Another mnemonic

Sir, I bear a rhyme excelling
In mystic verse and magic spelling
Celestial spirits elucidate
All my own striving can't relate

.. to 20 d.p.

-- Martyn Wilson

i have just started working on the memorization of pi. last friday. today is thursday. so its been almost a week but i have gotten to the 250th decimal plae. =D my dad is the one that supports me the best and my little brother is always there quizing me. i enjoy pi so muchh. none of my friends are there for me =/ but i still am going to keep trying. and someday i hope to have 1million memorized =D but thats a pretty big goal. but i'm an over achiever and i strive for the best. "if you're going to dig a ditch why not dig the biggest and the best ditch you can dig?" quoted by my math teacher
Image: 100_0306.JPG

-- Erika Bainbridge