Comments on: Forget Pi, here comes Tau

By: SMH

SMH — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 23:35:22 +0000

Pi times the radias squared is the area of a circle

Tau times the radias squared devided by 2 is the area of a circle.

Pi makes things simpler.

If there was a way for Tau to find its way in middle school math (i.e. Algebra I and below) then I would use it. So far, I just fill it in when I see something. Like the Surface Area of a cylinder (2(pi)(r^2))+2(Pi)rh= T(r^2)+Trh

By: Werner Hartl

Werner Hartl — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 18:57:09 +0000

I agree completeley with Michael Hartl

By: 德

Sat, 19 Nov 2011 09:56:55 +0000

Thats backwards. := is assignment in Pascal.

Unambiguous:
Pascal style assignment :=
C style comparison ==

Ambiguous:
Pascal style comparison =
C style assignment =

Of course APL has more characters and that’s another way to avoid ambiguity.

By: Jack Hamilson

Jack Hamilson — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 15:08:51 +0000

Sven: Right! I propose mathematics adopts == as the proper equality symbol to correct this misconception.

Alternately, you could always convert people to Pascal, where := is an equality check, and = is an equality assignment.

By: Sven Ekeberg

Sven Ekeberg — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 19:47:37 +0000

Interesting, but there are certainly more serious syntactical problems to worry about, such that milions of young programmers believe == is the generally accepted symbol for equality, and becomes confused when it is written = in mathematics…

It’s only a matter of time before this misconception has confused enough people to make this a real mess.

(This is due to the fact that thoughless programming language designers (of java, C# etc) included also the most perverted ad-hoc syntactical element of the primitive C-language (elements that originated from a really simple hack called B).)

By: Peter

Peter — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 16:48:51 +0000

Then again, you could say that pi is a multiple of 1/2 pi, and 1/2 pi is the most basic building block.

By: Charles Moeller

Charles Moeller — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 02:05:30 +0000

I’m with Bob Palais on this subject. For decades I have followed a simpler method of machine monitoring and control. Numerical methods are troublesome due to irrationals such as Pi. Software methods are equally troublesome. Fortunately there is an simpler, safer, and faster method that can be read about on scribd: “Natural Machine Logic.” “Software is Mostly Unnecessary” and the “Impediments of Computation” are sometimes too much to bear.
Charles Moeller

By: jose vasquez

jose vasquez — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 09:16:17 +0000

hello, greetings to all …
my name is jose I’m Chilean and student teachers in mathematics, surfing the net I found this blog and my attention this post. I find great idea, this would bring super positive consequences for teachers of mathematics, since it is my hard to understand why many students circle the circumference is 2 pi, after which they are taught that the perimeter of a circle is 2 pi plus radio, this brings many Confucianism for students and makes us very difficult to make classes.
I am in favor of the change from pi to tau.

By: Nik

Nik — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 02:47:57 +0000

Also, just would like to add: defining a constant tau=2*pi in no way ‘does away with’ the irrational constant pi, for tau is a multiple of pi. We strive to get at the most basic building blocks of geometric shapes, and pi is there whether we like it or not. This really seems to be an aesthetic issue/argument, IMO.

By: Nik

Nik — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 02:41:42 +0000

If it’s truly useful it will be adopted. The wonderful thing about mathematical reasoning is that there is nothing inherently wrong with setting tau = 2*pi and using some symbol for tau. If it helps convey reasoning, there is no mathematical precedent which forbids you setting the above relationship. Whether or not it is more ‘organic’ in terms of teaching math, I do not know. I think any apt math pupil would not be thrown by either interpretation, and there is no reason to redefine trig functions in terms of tau under the assumption that it would help the average student who only cares for the bare minimum of a passing grade in math.