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Doesnt PI technically have an end

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Fuzzy
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28 Jan 2009, 7:21 pm

when the precision reaches the size of the Planck constant?


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twoshots
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28 Jan 2009, 7:46 pm

Planck is physics not mathematics. The real world may or may not be discrete, but that imposes no restriction on our numbers.


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Xelebes
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28 Jan 2009, 8:09 pm

Fuzzy wrote:
when the precision reaches the size of the Planck constant?


There is never a perfect physical circle.



Fuzzy
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28 Jan 2009, 8:18 pm

Xelebes wrote:
Fuzzy wrote:
when the precision reaches the size of the Planck constant?


There is never a perfect physical circle.


Thats a good point.

twoshots, I realized that about the math end of it. I was talking about real objects.. Xelebes kiboshed it with his statement.


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twoshots
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28 Jan 2009, 9:11 pm

Xelebes wrote:
Fuzzy wrote:
when the precision reaches the size of the Planck constant?


There is never a perfect physical circle.

Define "physical circle". What does it even mean for a circle to exist? Can't we call a locus of points equidistant from a center in 2 out of the three dimensions a circle? Why does the construct become more real when we are using it as a label for an arrangement of e.g. matter? It's not like space isn't real; that kind of nonsense has I think long been discredited.


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Xelebes
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28 Jan 2009, 9:48 pm

twoshots wrote:
Xelebes wrote:
Fuzzy wrote:
when the precision reaches the size of the Planck constant?


There is never a perfect physical circle.

Define "physical circle". What does it even mean for a circle to exist? Can't we call a locus of points equidistant from a center in 2 out of the three dimensions a circle? Why does the construct become more real when we are using it as a label for an arrangement of e.g. matter? It's not like space isn't real; that kind of nonsense has I think long been discredited.


A physical circle is any constructed circle using physical materials. A non physical circle is a circle represented in a formula.

ax^2 + ay^2 = 1



Death_of_Pathos
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30 Jan 2009, 2:24 pm

Code:
x^2 + y^2 = r^2


If what I am seeing there is not physical, what is it? It certainly is a circle, and as pure of one as you can get. And yet, it is entirely comprised of baryons.

Damn, just broke my self imposed no-useless-philosophizing rule.



Xelebes
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30 Jan 2009, 2:41 pm

Death_of_Pathos wrote:
Code:
x^2 + y^2 = r^2


If what I am seeing there is not physical, what is it? It certainly is a circle, and as pure of one as you can get. And yet, it is entirely comprised of baryons.

Damn, just broke my self imposed no-useless-philosophizing rule.


It is an approximation of a circle. When one sees a circle, it is either an etch (coastline paradox), a loop (toroid), a disc (cylindroid), a globe (spheroid) or a hole (cylindrical or spherical void).



twoshots
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30 Jan 2009, 2:46 pm

Xelebes wrote:
Death_of_Pathos wrote:
Code:
x^2 + y^2 = r^2


If what I am seeing there is not physical, what is it? It certainly is a circle, and as pure of one as you can get. And yet, it is entirely comprised of baryons.

Damn, just broke my self imposed no-useless-philosophizing rule.


It is an approximation of a circle. When one sees a circle, it is either an etch (coastline paradox), a loop (toroid), a disc (cylindroid), a globe (spheroid) or a hole (cylindrical or spherical void).

I think the point here is whether or not a circly thing could be made arbitrarily close to a circle. Pi's value would be dictated by the best possible circle rather than any particular circle.


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Death_of_Pathos
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30 Jan 2009, 3:11 pm

twoshots wrote:
Xelebes wrote:
Death_of_Pathos wrote:
Code:
x^2 + y^2 = r^2


If what I am seeing there is not physical, what is it? It certainly is a circle, and as pure of one as you can get. And yet, it is entirely comprised of baryons.

Damn, just broke my self imposed no-useless-philosophizing rule.


It is an approximation of a circle. When one sees a circle, it is either an etch (coastline paradox), a loop (toroid), a disc (cylindroid), a globe (spheroid) or a hole (cylindrical or spherical void).

I think the point here is whether or not a circly thing could be made arbitrarily close to a circle. Pi's value would be dictated by the best possible circle rather than any particular circle.


In which case pi's "value" increases with the maximum size of this circly-thing.



TallyMan
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30 Jan 2009, 3:36 pm

Never ending pi. Homer Simpson would approve. :wink:


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ruveyn
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31 Jan 2009, 7:13 am

Fuzzy wrote:
when the precision reaches the size of the Planck constant?


What is PI?

ruveyn



Death_of_Pathos
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31 Jan 2009, 11:20 am

ruveyn wrote:
Fuzzy wrote:
when the precision reaches the size of the Planck constant?


What is PI?

ruveyn


Simple answer: the ratio between a perfect circle's circumference and its diameter.



Fuzzy
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31 Jan 2009, 12:01 pm

Death_of_Pathos wrote:
ruveyn wrote:
Fuzzy wrote:
when the precision reaches the size of the Planck constant?


What is PI?

ruveyn


Simple answer: the ratio between a perfect circle's circumference and its diameter.


And sometimes apple.


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Dokken
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31 Jan 2009, 3:55 pm

All I can say is a circle is the coolest shape because it has an infinite amount of sides. I don't know much about math


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Death_of_Pathos
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31 Jan 2009, 4:38 pm

Dokken wrote:
All I can say is a circle is the coolest shape because it has an infinite amount of sides. I don't know much about math


Nope. Just the one. Maybe you are thinking about the illusive infinigon.