I like it. Now I guess you could say we have a whole Pi Family. Papa Pi, or Tau, is the biggest at 6.2831. Mama Pi is the Pi we all know and love at 3.1415. And Baby Pi is Eta, at 1.5707.
I don't think you've read enough of the support of tau. The convenience of tau goes much deeper than the simple fact that it is C/r (which should almost be enough). Eta may be convenient in some ways that you state, but tau is more convenient than pi in practically every way.
@gmam96 All depends on location and teacher -- different people use different letters -- especially if they're using different languages! Technically you can choose to write an unknown in a formula as whatever letter you like.
I think you're wasting your time here people. Arguing about things which differ only by moltiplicative constants. It's absolutely the same, whatever you choose pi, tau or eta, the math behind it wont change. You can make some formulas simpler, but other will get more complicated. Remember that pi (or tau or eta) is not only used in trigonometrics, but also everywhere: complex numbers, calculating areas, analytical series etc. Don't loose time with constants, it won't get you anywhere.
This is pretty interesting. I don't think eta prevails in all of your arguments, but I do like what eta says about trigonometry. Tau, I think, is still better when defining a circle, its area, circumference, etc. At this point it seems to me that in most contexts tau is best, eta in some, and pi in very few. Perhaps this whole issue is an iteration of the natural tendency of humans to try to categorize things when the universe doesn't really care.
@ano0maly The only source advocating eta I know of is this video. And I'm not sure I totally agree that the idea should gain traction, except as a way of pointing out that you can make compelling arguments about many things.
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The key thing from my point of view is not how easy it makes things or how much it simplifies them, it is, instead, how well it correlates with their nature. If we defined a circle in terms of its deviation from a straight line, then I would support eta, but we define a circle from the idea of a circunference - "all the points equally distant from a point". In an ideal world, I would support the adoption of both, but having to decide when to apply one or another would complicate things.
Here's the non-mathy reason why eta will never gain popularity:
When I first saw videos in support of tau, I was immediately hooked because it made so much sense. I was willing to drop pi instantly and started sharing tau with other people. When I think about eta, I'm just not as excited about it. Explaining eta in radians is annoying, the name "eta" is weak and the symbol is like a mopey "n." I just can't imagine people rallying behind a mopey "n."
@guineapig713 Firstly, the tau people explain tau in radians already. Secondly, you don't HAVE to explain it in radians -- eta is a right angle, and how simple is that? Thirdly, and MOST IMPORTANTLY, the name "eta" has such scope for puns: eta pi ...
@DavidButlerAdelaide But what is a right angle? By saying it's an "eta" brings no new insight or meaning. It's a quarter of the way around a circle. It's tau/4. That just makes sense. That's why "tau people" explain tau in radians. Because it's intuitive.
You certainly have some convincing arguments David. In particular, the theta + n*eta being similar to the derivatives was rather lovely. Eta has bumped its way into second place on my list, ahead of pi. I still prefer tau though. It just fits many formulas better (sector arclength, sector area, integrals over all space etc.). I also prefer to use tau in trigonometry over eta, as I don't think of how sin/cos look in quadrants, rather how they change over a full circle.
There are some great points in this video for the relevance of eta, tau still wins the title of true circle constant in my mind. I'd rather see those factors of 4 in the denominator because they're telling me how much further I have to go to get to unity.
e^((0/4)ti) = 1
e^((1/4)ti) = i
e^((2/4)ti) = i^2 = -1
e^((3/4)ti) = i^3 = -i
e^(ti) = i^4 = 1
But really, for as long as the radius wins over the diameter, tau wins over it's competitors. And the radius always wins.
A circle is the infinite set of points that are a constant distance (the radius) from a single point. This is, after all, the easiest way to construct a circle, should you be given a marker that's attached to the center of a board by a string.
Try constructing a circle when the string's length is the *diameter* of the circle your job is to make!
@XFi6 Oh, that's easy -- just make the string into a loop and put one end around a pin at the centre and the other end around your pencil. Indeed, if you use TWO pins for the centre rather than one, you'll be able to make any ellipse this way.
I agree that this is another interesting point, but tau is meant to simplify mathematics, it seems to me that this will make things much more difficult. I suppose the solution is to use each when it will be most appropriate.
tao and eta just sympolize a ratio to pi. this is just another way to count. the symbol changes to symbolize the way to count. duh. makes too much sence to work right off the bat. i see eta, pi, and tao all togeather in harmony. im sure it can go on from there when needed but the counting has to be organized to work.
It didn't convince me that Eta is superior to Tau, but it did convince me that, while Tau is better for the Circumference formula, and you must admit that Pi earns it's keep when finding the Area of a circle, Eta does show promise for finding path differences. It just seems to work out that there are dozens of applications where you're going to have to multiply any one you pick by some power (or negative power) of two, so I think I'll stick with Pi for general use and these others for specifics.
i don't understand this debate at all. how could one representation be more fundamental than another when the various uses of the constant involve different aspects of the circle's geometry?
the only real way i can think of finding a "fundamental" representation of this number is by scanning the literature and looking for whether pi/2, pi or 2pi come up the most -- and even then, it'd be impossible to decide how to count each entry, because this is an absurd debate to begin with.
@reinux Well it IS absurd -- which was part of the reason for my video in the first place. But on the other hand it's not SO absurd -- when new mathematics is made, there are often very heated discussions about the best way to go about it and represent it. What you're seeing here is a version of that -- albeit about maths that's been around for a while that we can't really change...
@DavidButlerAdelaide those discussions only happen because it seems as though one use of the value might be more common than another. in this case we know quite clearly that that's hardly the case for pi. people are looking for an aesthetic that simply doesn't exist.
the attitude that goes around this discussion is neither one regarding math nor one regarding convention. it borders on numerology.
Everything you said is convincing, but you can't have Eta Day can you?? January 57th doesnt exist :D and even if it did, it'd be half a pie, a quarter of a tau, but on Tau die, i'll be having two pies :) lol
This is rather convoluted. Sorry. I watched this with an open mind, hoping to find something even better, but I still think Tau makes more sense. I'll grant Eta has merits the others lack, but Eta is also wrong, if the others are for ease-or-use reasons. It all depends on exactly what the problem calls for, really.
Your arguments fail. For example, using eta in [e^eta*i = i] is disgusting and eta doesn't improve matters for periodicity: [sin(theta + n*eta)] is harder to understand then if you use tau, because 1 tau is just equal to one period. You rarely find eta in any mathematical equations, so using eta will make most things a mess, where as using tau just makes sense. Anyways, I get that this isn't serious.
@DavidButlerAdelaide but the entire point of the equation was to relate the numbers e, i, pi/tau, 1, 0 in a beautiful equation with no fluff, which cannot happen if you use eta
@chickenapple11 I understand the idea of a "beautiful equation with no fluff" that has all the important numbers in it, but I don't actually agree that e^(i pi) + 1 = 0 is in fact beautiful and has no fluff. The beautiful equation is e^(i pi) = -1 -- and it's beautiful because of what it means, not because it includes all the numbers it it -- plus rearranging it just so you can put a 0 in there sounds just like fluff to me...
People focused on pi because they naturally measured across and around circles. Tau, because it reflects the fundamental properties of circles is more fundamental. For circles, Tau is best.
For trigonometry, quadrants of circles are fundamental. We can define Eta to mean quadrant.
Tau for the whole circle for circular calculations and Eta for a quadrant of a circle for trigonometric calculations are both more fundamental than Pi bisecting it.
@SzlampStudios No. If you inscribe a triangle in a circle, then the ratio of Circle Area to Triangle Area is 4 pi / (3 sqrt(3)) = 2 tau / (3 sqrt(3)) = 8 eta / (3 sqrt 3). The pentagon is worse!
Also, do you think you can calculate the area of a sector using Eta? The formula is 1/2*theta*r^2. I know you can with Tau. Since Tau = 360 deg, if you are finding a whole circle just let theta be 360. If you're finding 1/2 a circle which is 1/2 a tau, it means that you need 1/2 a 360 deg, which means 180 deg. If you need some weird fraction like 3/7, it means 3/7 of a tau and 3/7 of 360 deg which is... you know. And if you happen to have 1 and 5/7 circles it means 1 5/7 tau voila! Area found!
Just to add on, I think it's not a good idea to use another constant in Trigo. You already have Theta, adding an Eta is just horrendous. Why write Eta, when you can just write '90' with a small circle on top?
Using the 'circle thing', we get i when it is 1 Eta. i doesn't really help in trigo, since it's a complex number. Sure, it's still possible, but it just makes trigo more confusing.
Nevertheless, I like the Circle/Square Area thing, since you just multiply/divide by Eta.
Also, you said that we 'think' that 1 full revolution is the 'fundamental' angle. What you 'think' is 90 degrees. Thus you can't really say that Eta is better than Tau in this part. And, you already have 90 degrees to represent.. err.. 90 degrees. By introducing another 'constant' that is unneeded just makes things more confusing.
Trigonometry is not ALL about right-angles. Trigono means Triangle, Metry means measure. It means Triangle Measure. It doesn't have to have a right-angle.
Why can't we use Tau and Eta and Pi when they are simplest in using in a formula for what ever makes it easier for the Reader to understand...Can't we all just get along ;) hehehe You are BRILLIANT by the way with your Eta, I really, really enjoyed your video it blew me away :)
very interesting. I like the approach, especially b/c 4η = τ. I think that, for teaching, it is a better since most people know the four quarters is a whole concept, and having the fundamental unit being a quarter is a very good idea. Only thing I would say is we should keep the τ notation for 4-tuples of η since it's cleaner in formulas. I agree that η feels more fundamental, but I still see an argument for τ, though I may just be having a hard time letting go... I'll try it out.
@19821gem Well, you can work it out yourself! ;) Alternatively, if you search for "Buffon's Needle" in Google you'll get a lot of good websites giving an explanation.
@19821gem If I wanted to give a rigorous mathematical coverage of all the places where eta appears more simply than both pi and tau, I would have written a rigorous mathematical article. But I didn't want to do that. I just wanted to make a YouTube video that points to those places.
The main reason that this brilliant idea must surely fail is that there are only 31 days in January. Pi day = 3/14 = March 14. Tau day = 6/28 = June 28. Eta day would be on 1/57 or January 57. This is a problem! Of course, one possible (cheat?) solution would be to go with 15/7 or the 15th of July; however, this would only work in England (and possibly in some of the colonies that still use the Brit style of calendar). The French wouldn't go for it because it is the day after Bastille day.
@drmarvin613 Well, you could always have Eta Approximation Day on 11th of July, since 11/7 is the best fractional approximation to Eta with denominator less than or equal to 7 (like 22/7 is for pi)
@hassia89 Interesting solution. I like the fact that this will always fall after the Chinese New Year and that we can avoid the February 28/29 issue, which could have led to some confusion.
This is just obviously nonsense. How can you possibly say that Euler's formula is better with eta? And have you thought of the expense of changing all the textbooks? U r crzay dude! Thumbs down evrywun.
Kevin Houston
PS I'm joking.
PPS Can't wait for Michael John Blake's take on this.
next question: what is the Fundamental Integer? In other words, what is the most integery integer?
Joshbuckler 17 hours ago
I like it. Now I guess you could say we have a whole Pi Family. Papa Pi, or Tau, is the biggest at 6.2831. Mama Pi is the Pi we all know and love at 3.1415. And Baby Pi is Eta, at 1.5707.
Joshbuckler 17 hours ago
I don't think you've read enough of the support of tau. The convenience of tau goes much deeper than the simple fact that it is C/r (which should almost be enough). Eta may be convenient in some ways that you state, but tau is more convenient than pi in practically every way.
amundeii 18 hours ago
i thought the circumfrance (however you spell it) is written as R?
gmam96 1 month ago
@gmam96 All depends on location and teacher -- different people use different letters -- especially if they're using different languages! Technically you can choose to write an unknown in a formula as whatever letter you like.
DavidButlerAdelaide 1 month ago
I think you're wasting your time here people. Arguing about things which differ only by moltiplicative constants. It's absolutely the same, whatever you choose pi, tau or eta, the math behind it wont change. You can make some formulas simpler, but other will get more complicated. Remember that pi (or tau or eta) is not only used in trigonometrics, but also everywhere: complex numbers, calculating areas, analytical series etc. Don't loose time with constants, it won't get you anywhere.
krakklan 1 month ago
how about we give a name to every rational multipul of tau?
abrelosojo 1 month ago
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This is pretty interesting. I don't think eta prevails in all of your arguments, but I do like what eta says about trigonometry. Tau, I think, is still better when defining a circle, its area, circumference, etc. At this point it seems to me that in most contexts tau is best, eta in some, and pi in very few. Perhaps this whole issue is an iteration of the natural tendency of humans to try to categorize things when the universe doesn't really care.
TokrokK 1 month ago
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TokrokK 1 month ago
Hi DavidButlerAdelaide,
Is there any source advocating eta or tau/4? I couldn't find any. It would be nice if this idea started gaining traction like tau did.
While it sounds promising in some areas relating to right angles, I still think tau better encapsulates the circle as a whole.
ano0maly 1 month ago
@ano0maly The only source advocating eta I know of is this video. And I'm not sure I totally agree that the idea should gain traction, except as a way of pointing out that you can make compelling arguments about many things.
DavidButlerAdelaide 1 month ago 2
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godlord666 1 month ago
This whole argument reminds me of South Park's penis size equation.
Winstonsicle 1 month ago 2
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JLDimond 1 month ago
The key thing from my point of view is not how easy it makes things or how much it simplifies them, it is, instead, how well it correlates with their nature. If we defined a circle in terms of its deviation from a straight line, then I would support eta, but we define a circle from the idea of a circunference - "all the points equally distant from a point". In an ideal world, I would support the adoption of both, but having to decide when to apply one or another would complicate things.
andremeIIo 1 month ago
*facepalm*
czarelius 2 months ago
Great job - loved the video!
kevin8479 2 months ago
Here's the non-mathy reason why eta will never gain popularity:
When I first saw videos in support of tau, I was immediately hooked because it made so much sense. I was willing to drop pi instantly and started sharing tau with other people. When I think about eta, I'm just not as excited about it. Explaining eta in radians is annoying, the name "eta" is weak and the symbol is like a mopey "n." I just can't imagine people rallying behind a mopey "n."
guineapig713 2 months ago
@guineapig713 Firstly, the tau people explain tau in radians already. Secondly, you don't HAVE to explain it in radians -- eta is a right angle, and how simple is that? Thirdly, and MOST IMPORTANTLY, the name "eta" has such scope for puns: eta pi ...
DavidButlerAdelaide 2 months ago
@DavidButlerAdelaide But what is a right angle? By saying it's an "eta" brings no new insight or meaning. It's a quarter of the way around a circle. It's tau/4. That just makes sense. That's why "tau people" explain tau in radians. Because it's intuitive.
guineapig713 2 months ago
@DavidButlerAdelaide ^ i think he's got a point with the pun thing
JLDimond 1 month ago
You mentioned Beyonce at 6:18. :-)
unfrieden 2 months ago
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unfrieden 2 months ago
You certainly have some convincing arguments David. In particular, the theta + n*eta being similar to the derivatives was rather lovely. Eta has bumped its way into second place on my list, ahead of pi. I still prefer tau though. It just fits many formulas better (sector arclength, sector area, integrals over all space etc.). I also prefer to use tau in trigonometry over eta, as I don't think of how sin/cos look in quadrants, rather how they change over a full circle.
stephenlawless5 3 months ago
There are some great points in this video for the relevance of eta, tau still wins the title of true circle constant in my mind. I'd rather see those factors of 4 in the denominator because they're telling me how much further I have to go to get to unity.
e^((0/4)ti) = 1
e^((1/4)ti) = i
e^((2/4)ti) = i^2 = -1
e^((3/4)ti) = i^3 = -i
e^(ti) = i^4 = 1
But really, for as long as the radius wins over the diameter, tau wins over it's competitors. And the radius always wins.
Fictionarious 3 months ago
A circle is the infinite set of points that are a constant distance (the radius) from a single point. This is, after all, the easiest way to construct a circle, should you be given a marker that's attached to the center of a board by a string.
Try constructing a circle when the string's length is the *diameter* of the circle your job is to make!
XFi6 4 months ago
@XFi6 Oh, that's easy -- just make the string into a loop and put one end around a pin at the centre and the other end around your pencil. Indeed, if you use TWO pins for the centre rather than one, you'll be able to make any ellipse this way.
DavidButlerAdelaide 3 months ago
tau's better
rondovk 4 months ago
I agree that this is another interesting point, but tau is meant to simplify mathematics, it seems to me that this will make things much more difficult. I suppose the solution is to use each when it will be most appropriate.
amethyst8teen 4 months ago
@amethyst8teen Either way, I will be adding this to my bag of math tricks ;)
amethyst8teen 4 months ago
tao and eta just sympolize a ratio to pi. this is just another way to count. the symbol changes to symbolize the way to count. duh. makes too much sence to work right off the bat. i see eta, pi, and tao all togeather in harmony. im sure it can go on from there when needed but the counting has to be organized to work.
MrIan3333 4 months ago
It didn't convince me that Eta is superior to Tau, but it did convince me that, while Tau is better for the Circumference formula, and you must admit that Pi earns it's keep when finding the Area of a circle, Eta does show promise for finding path differences. It just seems to work out that there are dozens of applications where you're going to have to multiply any one you pick by some power (or negative power) of two, so I think I'll stick with Pi for general use and these others for specifics.
TheDrCN 4 months ago
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TheDrCN 4 months ago
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TheDrCN 4 months ago
i don't understand this debate at all. how could one representation be more fundamental than another when the various uses of the constant involve different aspects of the circle's geometry?
the only real way i can think of finding a "fundamental" representation of this number is by scanning the literature and looking for whether pi/2, pi or 2pi come up the most -- and even then, it'd be impossible to decide how to count each entry, because this is an absurd debate to begin with.
reinux 4 months ago
@reinux Well it IS absurd -- which was part of the reason for my video in the first place. But on the other hand it's not SO absurd -- when new mathematics is made, there are often very heated discussions about the best way to go about it and represent it. What you're seeing here is a version of that -- albeit about maths that's been around for a while that we can't really change...
DavidButlerAdelaide 4 months ago
@DavidButlerAdelaide those discussions only happen because it seems as though one use of the value might be more common than another. in this case we know quite clearly that that's hardly the case for pi. people are looking for an aesthetic that simply doesn't exist.
the attitude that goes around this discussion is neither one regarding math nor one regarding convention. it borders on numerology.
reinux 4 months ago
Everything you said is convincing, but you can't have Eta Day can you?? January 57th doesnt exist :D and even if it did, it'd be half a pie, a quarter of a tau, but on Tau die, i'll be having two pies :) lol
mustymoose94 5 months ago 12
This is rather convoluted. Sorry. I watched this with an open mind, hoping to find something even better, but I still think Tau makes more sense. I'll grant Eta has merits the others lack, but Eta is also wrong, if the others are for ease-or-use reasons. It all depends on exactly what the problem calls for, really.
The1truesushiboy 5 months ago
This was hilarious. Thank you.
bluepie88 5 months ago
Your arguments fail. For example, using eta in [e^eta*i = i] is disgusting and eta doesn't improve matters for periodicity: [sin(theta + n*eta)] is harder to understand then if you use tau, because 1 tau is just equal to one period. You rarely find eta in any mathematical equations, so using eta will make most things a mess, where as using tau just makes sense. Anyways, I get that this isn't serious.
id1337x 6 months ago
@id1337x It must be a matter of personal taste, because I quite like e^(eta*i) = i. ;)
DavidButlerAdelaide 6 months ago
@DavidButlerAdelaide but the entire point of the equation was to relate the numbers e, i, pi/tau, 1, 0 in a beautiful equation with no fluff, which cannot happen if you use eta
chickenapple11 5 months ago
@chickenapple11 I understand the idea of a "beautiful equation with no fluff" that has all the important numbers in it, but I don't actually agree that e^(i pi) + 1 = 0 is in fact beautiful and has no fluff. The beautiful equation is e^(i pi) = -1 -- and it's beautiful because of what it means, not because it includes all the numbers it it -- plus rearranging it just so you can put a 0 in there sounds just like fluff to me...
DavidButlerAdelaide 5 months ago
You show insight, but something deeper exists:
People focused on pi because they naturally measured across and around circles. Tau, because it reflects the fundamental properties of circles is more fundamental. For circles, Tau is best.
For trigonometry, quadrants of circles are fundamental. We can define Eta to mean quadrant.
Tau for the whole circle for circular calculations and Eta for a quadrant of a circle for trigonometric calculations are both more fundamental than Pi bisecting it.
Walabio 6 months ago 16
why cant we use them in there respected ways
wolfdolphen 6 months ago
e^inη = i^n
awesome
SzlampStudios 6 months ago
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SzlampStudios 6 months ago
Wouldn't a pentagon in a circle be τ/5? and a triangle be τ/3?
SzlampStudios 6 months ago
@SzlampStudios No. If you inscribe a triangle in a circle, then the ratio of Circle Area to Triangle Area is 4 pi / (3 sqrt(3)) = 2 tau / (3 sqrt(3)) = 8 eta / (3 sqrt 3). The pentagon is worse!
DavidButlerAdelaide 6 months ago
Also, do you think you can calculate the area of a sector using Eta? The formula is 1/2*theta*r^2. I know you can with Tau. Since Tau = 360 deg, if you are finding a whole circle just let theta be 360. If you're finding 1/2 a circle which is 1/2 a tau, it means that you need 1/2 a 360 deg, which means 180 deg. If you need some weird fraction like 3/7, it means 3/7 of a tau and 3/7 of 360 deg which is... you know. And if you happen to have 1 and 5/7 circles it means 1 5/7 tau voila! Area found!
PullarBearBear 6 months ago
Just to add on, I think it's not a good idea to use another constant in Trigo. You already have Theta, adding an Eta is just horrendous. Why write Eta, when you can just write '90' with a small circle on top?
Using the 'circle thing', we get i when it is 1 Eta. i doesn't really help in trigo, since it's a complex number. Sure, it's still possible, but it just makes trigo more confusing.
Nevertheless, I like the Circle/Square Area thing, since you just multiply/divide by Eta.
Good job!
PullarBearBear 6 months ago
Also, you said that we 'think' that 1 full revolution is the 'fundamental' angle. What you 'think' is 90 degrees. Thus you can't really say that Eta is better than Tau in this part. And, you already have 90 degrees to represent.. err.. 90 degrees. By introducing another 'constant' that is unneeded just makes things more confusing.
Trigonometry is not ALL about right-angles. Trigono means Triangle, Metry means measure. It means Triangle Measure. It doesn't have to have a right-angle.
PullarBearBear 6 months ago
I don't think going in semi-circles is practical and fundamental in calculations. Furthermore, you never see any equation with Circumference/2.
I think it's even more confusing using Eta than Tau when calculating the full revolution.
1 Tau = 1 Revolution
2 Tau = 2 Revolutions
... etc
But for Eta you have to divide by 4. This would 'violate' the rule that Mathematics is supposed to be elegant (if there is such a rule).
1 Revolution = 4 Eta
2 Revolution = 8 Eta
... etc
PullarBearBear 6 months ago
Why can't we use Tau and Eta and Pi when they are simplest in using in a formula for what ever makes it easier for the Reader to understand...Can't we all just get along ;) hehehe You are BRILLIANT by the way with your Eta, I really, really enjoyed your video it blew me away :)
kevinmorais 6 months ago 2
very interesting. I like the approach, especially b/c 4η = τ. I think that, for teaching, it is a better since most people know the four quarters is a whole concept, and having the fundamental unit being a quarter is a very good idea. Only thing I would say is we should keep the τ notation for 4-tuples of η since it's cleaner in formulas. I agree that η feels more fundamental, but I still see an argument for τ, though I may just be having a hard time letting go... I'll try it out.
sacul804 7 months ago
"this number eta is a fundamental number to describe the differences in path "length
XD
TROLL!!
619Joe182 7 months ago
can u prove your last theorem? i don't believe you just saying that the probability of touching the line is one over eta... prove it!!! please
19821gem 7 months ago
@19821gem Well, you can work it out yourself! ;) Alternatively, if you search for "Buffon's Needle" in Google you'll get a lot of good websites giving an explanation.
DavidButlerAdelaide 7 months ago
@DavidButlerAdelaide I'm sure I could but the point is if you're making the video you should give a solid proof! Not some statement of fact!
19821gem 6 months ago
@19821gem If I wanted to give a rigorous mathematical coverage of all the places where eta appears more simply than both pi and tau, I would have written a rigorous mathematical article. But I didn't want to do that. I just wanted to make a YouTube video that points to those places.
DavidButlerAdelaide 6 months ago
i will begin to use tau and eta interchangeably depending on the situation
TheoryXI 7 months ago
I love the accent... <3
brknhrt16 7 months ago
You should make Eta Day :)
s3my0nReal 8 months ago
The main reason that this brilliant idea must surely fail is that there are only 31 days in January. Pi day = 3/14 = March 14. Tau day = 6/28 = June 28. Eta day would be on 1/57 or January 57. This is a problem! Of course, one possible (cheat?) solution would be to go with 15/7 or the 15th of July; however, this would only work in England (and possibly in some of the colonies that still use the Brit style of calendar). The French wouldn't go for it because it is the day after Bastille day.
drmarvin613 8 months ago
@drmarvin613 Well, you could always have Eta Approximation Day on 11th of July, since 11/7 is the best fractional approximation to Eta with denominator less than or equal to 7 (like 22/7 is for pi)
DavidButlerAdelaide 8 months ago
@DavidButlerAdelaide Arrrgh. We just missed it :( Hey! We could go for November 7th - and this would make the Americans happy.
drmarvin613 8 months ago
haha, main argument against against serious mathematical reasons is "noo, there is no day!!"
@drmarvin613 so why not count the days of february as the following january days. then it would be the 26th of February , or seen as 1/57?
just a suggestion :D
hassia89 7 months ago
@hassia89 Interesting solution. I like the fact that this will always fall after the Chinese New Year and that we can avoid the February 28/29 issue, which could have led to some confusion.
drmarvin613 7 months ago
This is all well and good, but has anybody set it to music yet?
drmarvin613 8 months ago
@drmarvin613 yes exactly. i can't take this serious until someone played it.
Zidriz 7 months ago
This is just obviously nonsense. How can you possibly say that Euler's formula is better with eta? And have you thought of the expense of changing all the textbooks? U r crzay dude! Thumbs down evrywun.
Kevin Houston
PS I'm joking.
PPS Can't wait for Michael John Blake's take on this.
DrKevinHouston 8 months ago
A great defense for Eta in elementary mathematics.
125chickens 8 months ago
Haha I know this is satire but I think I'm convinced
tystanity 8 months ago