Inspiring and Creative Resources & Tutorials for Science-Curious People
The formula developed by British mathematician John Wallis defines π as an infinite product of integer ratios. This formula was recently discovered in a quantum mechanics equation for hydrogen atom energy states, emphasizing its pervasiveness in math and science.
More number facts.
The decimal representation of 𝜋 is thought to have random digits that are uniformly distributed. Since there is a 0.9 probability for any digit in a random decimal sequence to be non-zero, it’s fascinating to investigate when a 0 or a sequence of 0s will appear in this sequence.
Remarkably, a string of eight zeroes (00000000 !) emerges at position 172,330,850 in the decimal representation of 𝜋, counting from the digit immediately following the decimal point.
Below is the string, along with the digits surrounding it:
The infamous problem of representing numbers with four 4’s appeared for the first time in 1881 in a London science journal. In 2001, a team of mathematicians from Harvey Mudd College found that we can even get four 4’s to approximate four notable constants: the number e, π, acceleration of gravity, and Avogadro’s number.
A “Kepler triangle” is a right triangle having edge lengths in a geometric progression, in which the common ratio is √ϕ, where ϕ represents the golden ratio.
Well, let’s construct a square with side length √ϕ that inscribes a Kepler triangle, that is, a right triangle with edges 1 : √ϕ : ϕ (or approximately 1 : 1.272 : 1.618), as shown in the picture. Draw then the circumcircle of the Kepler triangle (highlighted in orange in the picture) whose diameter is the hypotenuse of the triangle.
Then, the perimeters of the square (4√ϕ≈5.0884) and the circle (πϕ≈5.083) coincide up to an error less than 0.1%. From this, we can get the approximation coincidence π≈4/√ϕ
