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} Three is close enough for the priests who transcribed what God said,
} but they were a little lazy and failed to write everything which was
} the entire decimal expansion of pi which is infinite. He can do that,
} though because he is God.
}
} You're American, aren't you. They use 3.14 or 3.14159, but the British
} use 3.1416. Nobody knows why.
}
} Three and one seventh is also close, but I personally prefer 355/113
} which surprisingly, is closer than all the approximations above. I also
} like it because it consists of the first three odd numbers arranged in
} pairs in ascending order (if you navigate around the "/" correctly).
} What does that mean? Nothing.
}
} When you ask "How much accuracy do we need," you are saying "I know
} the answer will be wrong," but asking "How much wrong can we tolerate?"
}
} Don't use 3.1415926535 because is is rounded incorrectly. Should be
} 3.1414926536. Don't think 0.0000000001 is important? That represents
} 0.83 people on planet Earth and he (or she) will not be happy being
} rounded into oblivion.
}
} Don't use pi to calculate anything about Earth. It's not even round.
} It's 1.001649 times wider than high (or higher than wide, I forget).
} Not much?
} With a circumference of 24,860 to 24,901 miles, the error can be as
} much as (you guessed it) 41 miles. Well, it's not really a
} circumference because the Earth isn't round. That means if you are
} standing on the north pole, you are 41 miles closer to the center of
} the Earth than if you are standing on the equator. 41 miles! That's
} 216,480 feet, more than ten times the highest mountain which is 29,039
} ft. What does that mean? You won't believe it. Here it comes:
}
} This means that if you start at the beginning of the Mississippi river,
} somewhere near St. Paul, Minnesota, and float down to the end, you
} have floated away from the center of the Earth. Miles away. Miles.
} Floating away from the center of the Earth? What happened to gravity?
}
} So anyway, you have asked, "How much wrong can you be?" Personal
} preference, I guess. I can tell you that your preference is "A lot
} wrong is OK with me." How do I know? Because you ask the Oracle
} technical questions.
}
} And that round corral? It's not a circle either, it's a polygon. It
} just does not deserve its own a cool number like pi. In beginning
} calculus, they would let the number of fence posts become infinite.
} Don't do that because there's not enough trees to make them or Texas
} prairie to hold them.
}
} NB: All of the math and science in the above response has been fact
} checked by that guy on CNN, You know, the one with the bow tie. He
} says everything is true, except that 216,489 is not ten times 29,039.
} It's only about seven and a half times, but you still get the point.
}
} PS: NB is Latin for Nota Bene which was already Latin. We have
} strayed so far from the original question that it's time to stop.
}
} You owe the Oracle ... I SAID IT'S TIME TO STOP!
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