Happy Tau Day, everyone!

[pokerfan]

One of the major contributions Archimedes made to mathematics was his method for approximating the value of Pi, the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter. There is now an online movement to celebrate Tau, the number you get when you use a circle's radius instead. Tau is approximately 6.28, instead of the familiar constant Pi, which is 3.14. There is much opinion and controversy surrounding this new movement.

http://www.mathgoodies.com/articles/Tau_Day.html

[PoliticAverse]

1. Pi rules...

If only for Euler's identity: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euler%27s_identity

[pokerfan]

2. Euler's Identity would still exist

[center]
e^i? = 1

The complex exponential of the circle constant is unity. A rotation by one turn is 1.
[/center]

Best of all, it's more illuminating as the constants are consistent. We measure angles in radians which are based on the radius. Why, then, use a constant based on the diameter?

[getting old in mke]

3. I'm not so sure that

e ^ {i pi} + 1 = 0

is any prettier than

e ^ {i tau} = 1

AND who doesn't like double pi(e)?

[longship]

4. Might as well post it here.

Concerning Euler's formula, Richard Feynman long believed it one of the most important. As does mathematician Ian Stewart.

But as a degrees physics major, I have to cast my lot with Tau. It simplifies quite a few physics formulae, including Euler's.

[PoliticAverse]

5. Really there's no reason not to use Pi and Tau, whichever ever makes things simpler... n/t

[pokerfan]

6. It makes things more clear

As an engineer, having to deal with 2pi cropping up whenever a single complete circle is described just obfuscates things. 1 tau = 1 rotation. Simple and clear.

[napoleon_in_rags]

7. I agree with it.

I have been messing around with waves and transforms, and you have to plug 2*pi into EVERYTHING. Think of how natural it would be to think of radians. tau/2 = 180 degrees, tau/4 is 90 degrees, etc. Tau really is the natural version. We think of pi as the "perimeter of a circle". yet the perimeter of the unit circle is 2*pi. That's stupid, always has been. When we teach kids the perimeter of circle, it should be the unit circle, so their ready down the road for trig.