Anti Pi day 28th June - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: TheWelly888
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: June 28, 2011, 07:57:51 pm
content: Some mathematicians argue against the use of Pi for mathematical equations, using the symbol Tau = 2 x Pi = 6.28 hence 28th June being Anti Pi Day!Many of us know that the full cycle of a waveform is 2Pi but the Anti Pi guys argue that the use of Tau makes it easier to see one whole cycle being equal to 1 Tau.Anyway have a read of this pagehttp://tauday.com/and say if Tau will help you with the circuit maths or not?I've added a poll for it.

author: ejeffrey
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 28, 2011, 08:22:52 pm
content: Definitely on balance you see more 2*pi in equations than pi alone, but 4*pi, pi/2, and pi/4 are also quite common. If I were stranded on a desert island with nothing but a pencil and an endless stack of paper and decided to rederive all mathematics and physics I would probably use 2*pi as my basic trigonometric transcendental number, but I think the people who get worked up over this (several of my friends included) are crazy nutbars who will get excited about anything.Of course, I tend to think of 'getting the factors of 2*pi right' is a job you leave to engineers once the physicists are done, so probably you should take my opinion with a grain of salt.

author: dengorius
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: June 29, 2011, 12:25:53 am
content: I'm happy with pi. Tau is already used to denote time constants, and "Tau is half a pie" doesn't sound not a bit as good as "Pi is half a pie".

author: Kiriakos-GR
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 29, 2011, 12:37:12 am
content: And I thought that I was the biggest Nerd in the forum,because I was playing with mOhms..LoL

author: Mechatrommer
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 29, 2011, 05:25:55 am
content: then how we gonna write area of circle? tr²/2? i'm more prone to practicality, ie using full circle (2pi) as one simpler symbol, but i'm afraid there's reason why people struggled with the term pi in the past, and i would love to know that and appreciate what they did. with new tau, we'll be seing more tau/8 term frequently.

author: RayJones
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: June 29, 2011, 06:01:34 am
content: So these mathematicians are up in arms over an elementary operation of multiply by two which even primary school kids can handle quite well?Surely they must have something more useful to ponder about that desiring to introduce yet another constant.If they had their way, the area of a circle would be ( Tau / 2 ) * (D / 2) ^2. Still just as factually correct.

author: vk6zgo
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 29, 2011, 06:26:00 am
content: Why should we care about Mathematicians?They use operator"i",we use operator"j",as just one instance where Engineering usage differs from theirs.There is already an established meaning for "Tau" in Electronics.We even differed withPhysicistsfor years about clockwise polarisation,but now they've changed to our definition.2pi is so engraved on our memories that we have no problem remembering it.In fact, to a fairly close approximation we can just call pi "3" (& hence 2pi ,"6")& be "within the paddock"for Engineering purposes.VK6ZGO

author: Bored@Work
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 29, 2011, 06:27:17 am
content: Quote from: RayJones on June 29, 2011, 06:01:34 amNo, mathematicians (the real ones) give a flinging fart about a constant. To simplify, mathematicians are first of all interested if a solution to a problem exists, not necessarily what it is, and especially not in the numeric value of the solution. In the exceptional cases they happen to be interested in the numeric value they usually only care if it is null or the null vector.The anti-pi day is coming from some attention seeking whores.

author: Mechatrommer
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 29, 2011, 07:18:49 am
content: agree with bored, the real mathematicians live in the world of abstraction. the real purpose of pi is meaningless to them, they only marvel the solution (process on how to get the value) to it. but without mathematicians and phycisist, engineers are nothing! even more to hobbiest. we rely on higher level people to do their job so we can do ours. and i dont really get why there's difference in such a nontrivial matter as simple as argument between "i" and "j". people like to waste their time on such a useless debate, i just prefer to follow what the inventor used, if there's no obvious practical reason. and by stating "pi is wrong" in the link, is nothing but to show how dickhead the "campaign starter" is on try to impose his religion on ours and defy the hardwork and sweats that have been done before.

author: vk6zgo
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 30, 2011, 07:07:09 am
content: The only reason "j" is used in Electronics is that "i" already has an established meaning,as the symbol for current,so we can write something like "-j i",& mean something totally different to "-ii".VK6ZGO