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Bricks of Pi

your house to 42,000 decimal places
  (+7, -4)
(+7, -4)
  [vote for,
against]

When Bricks of Pi are being manufactured, each block receives a four digit number stamped onto its outside face, prior to firing.

These numerals are extracted out of the infinite series that results from the evaluation of Pi. You can lay them in any order, or request a precise sequence corresponding to the number of bricks required to construct your entire building.

Also available - The House That Genome Built.

xenzag, Jul 20 2008

pi to 50,000 decimal places http://www.geocitie.../1216/numtab/pi.htm
or is it an outside wall of that new science tower? [xenzag, Jul 20 2008]

Normal Numbers http://en.wikipedia.../wiki/Normal_number
In mathematics, a normal number is, roughly speaking, a real number whose digits (in every base) show a uniform distribution... [futurebird, Jul 21 2008]

every conceivable sequence.... http://www.inwit.co...ndodditiesofpi.html
occurs in pi [xenzag, Jul 21 2008]

Search pi for strings http://www.angio.net/pi/bigpi.cgi
My SS number doesn't occur in the first 200 million digits, but a string of the first 8 digits does, and also the strings 00000000, 11111111, 22222222, 121212121, and 12345678. [ldischler, Jul 21 2008]

The Pi Code http://users.aol.com/s6sj7gt/picode.htm
[ldischler, Jul 21 2008]

Today is Pi approximation day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pi_Day
[DenholmRicshaw, Jul 22 2008]

The Kate Bush Conjecture https://www.ncetm.o...munity/thread/45140
[hippo, May 10 2017]

http://www.bbc.co.u...technology-11313194 Pi record smashed as team finds two-quadrillionth digit [xenzag, May 12 2017]

Pi in the sky http://www.angio.net/pi/piquery
Dave Andersen's program allows you to enter up to a 120-digit pattern for which it will search through the first (now updated to) 200,000,000 decimal places of Pi. It also shows you many of the digits which surround the location of a pattern match (very helpful!); however, in order to find multiple occurrences of the same pattern it's necessary to click on a "Find Next" link for each one. As an example, here's the output you'd get searching for the pattern 99999999 (eight nines): [xenzag, May 12 2017]

3Blue1Brown on a surprising link between pi and prime numbers https://www.youtube...watch?v=NaL_Cb42WyY
It's a bit of a slog, but well worth it - 3Blue1Brown is a truly gifted mathematics communicator. [+] [zen_tom, May 27 2017]

three point one four one five nine two six five three five eight nine seven nine three two three eight four six two six four three three eight three two seven n ine five zero two eight eight four one nine seven one six nine three nine nine t hree seven five one zero five eight two zero nine seven four nine four four five nine two three zero seven eight one six four zero six two eight six two zero ei ght nine nine eight six two eight zero three four eight two five three four two one one seven zero six seven nine eight two one four eight zero eight six five o ne three two eight two three zero six six four seven zero nine three eight four four six zero nine five five zero five eight two two three one seven two five th ree five nine four zero eight one two eight four eight one one one seven four fi ve zero two eight four one zero two seven zero one nine three eight five two one one zero five five five nine six four four six two two nine four eight nine fiv e four nine three zero three eight one nine six four four two eight eight one ze ro nine seven five six six five nine three three four four six one two eight fou r seven five six four eight two three three seven eight six seven eight three on e six five two seven one two zero one nine zero nine one four five six four eigh t five six six nine two three four six zero three four eight six one zero four f ive four three two six six four eight two one three three nine three six zero se ven two six zero two four nine one four one two seven three seven two four five eight seven zero zero six six zero six three one five five eight eight one seven four eight eight one five two zero nine two zero nine six two eight two nine tw o five four zero nine one seven one five three six four three six seven eight ni ne two five nine zero three six zero zero one one three three zero five three ze ro five four eight eight two zero four six six five two one three eight four one four six nine five one nine four one five one one six zero nine four three thre e zero five seven two seven zero three six five seven five nine five nine one ni ne five three zero nine two one eight six one one seven three eight one nine thr ee two six one one seven nine three one zero five one one eight five four eight zero seven four four six two three seven nine nine six two seven four nine five six seven three five one eight eight five seven five two seven two four eight ni ne one two two seven nine three eight one eight three zero one one nine four nin e one two nine eight three three six seven three three six two four four zero si x five six six four three zero eight six zero two one three nine four nine four six three nine five two two four seven three seven one nine zero seven zero two one seven nine eight six zero nine four three seven zero two seven seven zero fi ve three nine two one seven one seven six two nine three one seven six seven fiv e two three eight four six seven four eight one eight four six seven six six nin e four zero five one three two zero zero zero five six eight one two seven one f our five two six three five six zero eight two seven seven eight five seven seve n one three four two seven five seven seven eight nine six zero nine one seven t https://libraryofba...gi?rbuxycdrep_p.253
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[link]






       //You can lay them in any order//
Of course you can, and it's still a sequence of pi.
ldischler, Jul 20 2008
  

       Is it? How so?
jutta, Jul 20 2008
  

       it has been proven that any arbitrary sequence of numbers appears somewhere in the sequence of pi.
sninctown, Jul 20 2008
  

       It has? Where?   

       (I realize that this is widely believed, but I find it difficult to prove - it's a different statement from "there are infinitely many digits in the decimal expansion of pi" or from "pi is non-repeating".)
jutta, Jul 20 2008
  

       I just went to that "pi to 50,000 decimal places" link, opened my find-in-this-page editor, and typed in random sequences of numbers. I got most 5-digit sequences, and a few 8-digit sequences.   

       "Any arbitrary sequence of numbers" would mean we could somewhere find the digital equivalent of _Hamlet_--that's too much to expect. You'll need to get your house in order.
baconbrain, Jul 20 2008
  

       Careful, [snictown], the word "proof" in mathematics can be a bit tricky.
Jinbish, Jul 20 2008
  

       The idea about Hamlet is true if pi is a normal number, and most people think it is normal.
futurebird, Jul 21 2008
  

       It seems that given the infinite nature of the pi sequence, then [snictown] could be right - this is a quote from the link. "Now, if this be true, that p is completely random, then every conceivable sequence of numbers must somewhere occur in p . That is, if one considers any number, 12345678 for instance, that number will sooner or later be found in p if the search is pressed far enough. To assume otherwise would be to prejudice the randomness of p."
xenzag, Jul 21 2008
  

       First, I don't know of any proof that pi is a random sequence of digits. I'm aware that lengthy sequences have been tested and found to be random, but that's different from being able to assert that the entire, infinite, sequence of digits in pi follows a completely random distribution (or are there, for example a fraction of a percentage more sevens in the sequence than you'd expect?).

Second, it seems common sense to say that "if the digits in pi follow a random distribution then every conceivable sequence of numbers must somewhere occur in pi" but I'm not sure that's actually true. To put it another way, if pi is random, then does that 'prove' that "1234567890" occurs somewhere in pi, or does it just make it very probable?
hippo, Jul 21 2008
  

       Either way, I'm not that concerned. If I understand Gödel's incompleteness theorem well enough, it leaves enough room for no proof or perhaps of more importance, no disproof. As Pi DOES have a verifiable sequence, then I see no problem.
xenzag, Jul 21 2008
  

       //it has been proven that any arbitrary sequence of numbers appears somewhere in the sequence of pi.//   

       [sninctown] It is conjectured, not proven.   

       //Second, it seems common sense to say that "if the digits in pi follow a random distribution then every conceivable sequence of numbers must somewhere occur in pi" but I'm not sure that's actually true.//   

       [hippo], if pi were to be proved a normal number, it would be a disjunctive sequence, and hence every finite string would be represented.   

       [baconbrain] If it were a normal number, it would show uniform distribution in all bases. So Shakespeare, as well as Beethoven, and everything else (converted to binary), would have a representation in the binary representation of pi. As would this anno.   

       However, we are a long way from finding pi to be a normal number.   

       [HegelStone] Not true, discussed before on the 'bakery, but it makes a great tagline!
4whom, Jul 21 2008
  

      
//So Shakespeare, as well as Beethoven, and everything else (converted to binary), would have a representation in the binary representation of pi.//

Even messages could be found there, and will, with enough computing power. Hidden messages from God himself. And one day we’ll see a book titled, “The Pi Code: Finding God in Transcendental Numbers.”
ldischler, Jul 21 2008
  

       Safe in the knowledge, that every ELS, would appear as plaintext somewhere hence, so you only have to expand pi to maximum half its actual places:-).
4whom, Jul 21 2008
  

       If you make certain of the bricks removable, then when the mood strikes you you could switch them around.   

       You could then invite people to come to your house, show them around, and when they say, "This is the same place you've been for the last five years," you could provably respond, "No, it's just a similar house in the same geographical location. Now give me my housewarming gifts."   

       Repeat until you have a full china set and no friends.
shapu, Jul 21 2008
  

       The key to the answer to the question being asked is not so much the randomness of pi, but the infinite-ness of its sequence of digits. It is in that infinity that one could expect to find any FINITE arbitrary sequence. I conjecture it would be possible to find a place, somewhere in that infinity, that begins, 314159265358979323846... and proceeds to duplicate all the initial digits of pi, until this particular starting point is reached. After the duplication, effective randomness would follow, for a nice long stretch, and eventually a NEW starting point could be found, which duplicates everything up to THAT point. And so on.... If you don't think this is possible, then what it really means is that you don't properly understand what "infinity" allows.
Vernon, Jul 21 2008
  

       No, Vernon, infinity doesn't imply normalness.   

       Here's how to build a counterexample: Take PI, translate it into binary, then read those digits back as decimal digits. The resulting number goes something like this: "11.0010010000111111..." That gets you another series of decimal digits that has roughly the same properties of infinity and non-repeatingness as PI -- except that it doesn't contain the digits 2 through 9. (It is thus not a normal number.) That sequence is still infinite, but doesn't contain the substring "2".   

       I agree that it's likely that PI is a normal number, but it's interesting that it's not (yet?) proven.
jutta, Jul 21 2008
  

       [jutta], you appear to be mixing conditions. I was not talking about a binary form of pi. But if I was, I would simply say that you ought to be able to take some arbitrary length of the initial ones and zeros (instead of some arbitrary length of Base-10 digits), and eventually find a duplicate of them, somewhere in the infinite sequence of ones and zeros.   

       A piece of trivia for those who haven't seen it before: pi can be computed as the sum of the infinite series 4/1 - 4/3 + 4/5 - 4/7 + 4/9 - 4/11 + 4/13 - 4/15 ... (don't try this without a computer; it takes a LOT of terms for the result to gradually converge into even the first few digits of pi)
Vernon, Jul 21 2008
  

       I'm not talking about the binary form of PI, I'm just using it to build a decimal number that is just as infinite as PI, yet doesn't contain some sequences of digits. That is a counterexample to your claim that infinity implies normalness.   

       // Repeat until you have a full china set and no friends.
[marked-for-tagline]
jutta, Jul 21 2008
  

       [jutta], OK, I know there are contrived infinite sequences with properties such that you describe. Pi has not been shown to be such a sequence, just as it has not been shown to be random enough for "normality". I think, though, that it is random enough for most modest/finite arbitrary sequences of digits that one might care to specify, those sequences can be found somewhere among the digits of pi. I did say in my first post here that the key was less a matter of its randomess than a matter of its infinite-ness, and in saying that I did not mean to imply that the degree of randomness which it exhibits is discount-able.
Vernon, Jul 21 2008
  

       I am compelled to quote from Gödel (via wikipedia)
"Gödel's first incompleteness theorem shows that any formal system that includes enough of the theory of the natural numbers is incomplete: it contains statements that are neither provably true nor provably false. Or one might say, no formal system which aims to define the natural numbers can actually do so, as there will be true number- theoretical statements which that system cannot prove."
xenzag, Jul 21 2008
  

       This is all a bit moot. [ldischler] said "Of course you can"; [jutta] said "?"; [snictown] said "yes. It's proven."; [jutta] said "I don't think so".   

       Since then, the cut and thrust of the idea has been sidelined and there has been a debate about the randomness of Pi. Pi is not a random number, although it's irrational sequence appears to be so, and it is known to over a trillion decimal places.   

       Therefore, I suggest that it does not matter whether the 42,000 combinations of brick-numbers form a section of Pi. They will look like it - and no-one will be able to realistically mount a counter-proof.   

       <I'm reminded of kids in a playround: "Your Mum *smells*", "No she doesn't", "Yes she does", "Prove it then", "No. You prove she doesn't smell"...>
Jinbish, Jul 22 2008
  

       Assuming that the infinity/normallness thing does apply to pi, then it may also apply to other numbers of the same ilk (pi+1, e, e-9, e+pi, phi, among others) In which case any sequence of arbitrary numbers must 'belong' to any number of arbitrary transcendental numbers.   

       So you have an arbitrary sequence of bricks which *may* be found in any of an infinite and uncountable number of transcendental numbers - am I alone in thinking "Big Deal"?   

       Anyway, if you want a house that's piesque, shouldn't it be circular?   

       At least the bricks aren't representations of sqrt(-1) - Who would want to live in an imaginary house?
zen_tom, Jul 22 2008
  

       I dunno, it seems like a lovely place (in my head).
Jinbish, Jul 22 2008
  

       To be fair, it is a nice house, it's just the gaping enlegged coelacanth lurking by the back door that gives me the heebeegeebees.
zen_tom, Jul 22 2008
  

       If pi contained *every* possible sequence of numbers within its digits, then we would have to conclude that somewhere within pi is a never-ending string of 8's, just as long as pi itself.
napoleonbag, Jul 22 2008
  

       //If pi contained *every* possible sequence of numbers within its digits, then we would have to conclude that somewhere within pi is a never-ending string of 8's, just as long as pi itself.//

Every possible *finite* sequence.
ldischler, Jul 22 2008
  

       Wha.   

       I read every word and now my head hurts.
Would there be infinite strings of prime numbers scattered throughout Pi then?
<goes for an Aspirin>
  

       [2 fries shy of a happy meal]:
Short answer: Yes
Long answer: <Morpheus> Unfortunately, no-one can be told how infinite Pi is - you have to prove it for yourself. </Morpheus>
neutrinos_shadow, Jul 23 2008
  

       Hmm.
By analyzing reoccurring sequences of prime number sequences within Pi would it possibly make it easier to...
  

       ...   

       ...nope...I lost it. My bad. Carry on.   

       Anyone else think of Heinlein's "--and he built a crooked house" when the imaginary house came up? I know a tessarect isn't imaginary, but it should be mentioned somewhere in a discussion of mathematical houses.
MechE, Jul 23 2008
  

       //Anyway, if you want a house that's piesque, shouldn't it be circular?// pi is a *ratio* that *crops* up everywhere, not just in circles. Even in your imaginary house. In fact, specifically, in your imaginary house.
4whom, Jul 23 2008
  

       Indeed. It is dismantling to be satisfied with the fact that a simple Leibniz series yeilds the digits of pi:   

       4/1 - 4/3 + 4/5 - 4/7 ... = pi   

       WHY, PI, WHY?!?!
daseva, Jul 23 2008
  

       Whenever I see a series with x1 - x2 + x3 - x4 + ...   

       I think i, pi, i ?!?! :-)
4whom, Jul 23 2008
  

       Oddly enough, whenever I see a system that begins x1+x2+x3.... I think, "I'd like some pie."
shapu, Jul 23 2008
  

       So next time someone asks me for my number I just write the symbol for 'pi'.
mecotterill, Jul 23 2008
  

       I wonder how many people have those first few digits for their pi-n number.   

       In an undergraduate lecture, a tutor put the numbers 1,4,1,5,9 up on the board. He said, "I have a shiny new textbook for the first student who can tell me the next two numbers in this sequence..."   

       All the students hastily got their notepads out and started to calculate whatever. All the students except [Jinbish] - he'd recognised the sequence straight away. A friend of his had memorised Pi at high school. [Jb] had been sitting next to him as he recited out loud 3.1415926 over and over again. [Jb] had almost fallen out with his repetitive mate... but now fate had smiled on his near madness-inducing episode.   

       "2 and 6!" and as the tutor looked up and smiled, and a hundred astonished faces turned round, he knew that both the textbook and infinite amounts of derision from the rest of the student body were now his!!
Jinbish, Jul 24 2008
  

       The ideas explored in this discussion are the same as those in the Kate Bush Conjecture (see link) - essentially, she sung the digits of Pi but with a few out of sequence and the conjecture is that this 'wrong' sequence actually does occur somewhere in the expansion of Pi.
hippo, May 10 2017
  

       [irrelevant aside in response to earlier discussions]   

       There was a science fiction story (may have been Contact by Carl Sagan) in which a supercivilisation has engineered the universe and mathematics in such a way as to leave a message encoded in the digits of pi.
MaxwellBuchanan, May 10 2017
  

       Yes, a circle visible as ones and zeroes in base 11.
nineteenthly, May 10 2017
  

       That's also discussed in the link I provided
hippo, May 10 2017
  

       Each house would need a single point survey datum to stick the initial 3 brick, vertically set of course.
wjt, May 11 2017
  

       It's tau/2
hippo, May 11 2017
  

       Oddly enough, that story is encoded in pi somewhere. As is every annotation on this page.   

       But I'm not sure pi has enough digits to explain women.
RayfordSteele, May 11 2017
  

       It certainly doesn't have enough to encode the excuses for that remark that you're going to need when the women catch up with you, [Ray] ...
8th of 7, May 11 2017
  

       Why call 2*pi tau, anyway? Wouldn't it be more consistent with the convention set by the kilogram to call it bipi?
b153b, May 11 2017
  

       Because tau looks like pi with just one vertical, which if you think about that as being the denominator, simply makes all sorts of intrinsic inherent sense and beauty, or at least as much as an irrational number can have.
RayfordSteele, May 12 2017
  

       //What exactly is pi again?//   

       If you draw a square that's 2 units (inches, cm, metres, demi-furlongs whatever) and then draw a circle exactly in the middle whose edges touch the sides; Go on to sprinkle exactly 4000 grains of rice from a height such that they fall randomly across the square; you could use a sieve or some other sprinkly-outy device to assist with this - the important thing is that it's random (if any grains that fall outside the square, just sprinkle them again)   

       (Alternately, you could do this with a box with a lid that's got a 2x2 base, and has a circle inscribed in the middle. It might make less of a mess.)   

       Once you're finished, count the number of grains of rice inside the circle. You should have a 4 digit number, so just plop a decimal place after the 1st digit, and that should be that. That's what pi is. (Subject to local humidity, wind and gravitational conditions)   

       If you want pi to more decimal places, try the same thing with 40,000, 400,000 or 4,000,000 grains of rice (after booking out a suitable period in your events calendar)   

       Alternately, the same routine ought to be possible with lentils, mung beans or similar, and a weight-based approach where you start with 4g, 4kg or some 4-weight of something;   

       Sprinkle, shake or otherwise enturbulate and extract only the stuff that lands on the circle. That stuff, weighed again should have a value of pi, give or take the odd bean.
zen_tom, May 12 2017
  

       Won't work with mung beans - they use the old Chinese Imperial pi, which is only accurate to about 2 decimal places.
MaxwellBuchanan, May 12 2017
  

       //How long is pi, in base pi?//   

       1.   

       That is, pi is exactly one pi long.
Loris, May 12 2017
  

       When you measure the length of pi, are you allowed to ignore the zero between the 1 and the decimal? I'd have thought pi base pi has length 2.   

       Though really it's still infinitely long, but mostly zeroes.   

       // Because tau looks like pi with just one vertical, which if you think about that as being the denominator, simply makes all sorts of intrinsic inherent sense and beauty //   

       Oh, you see I'm an engineer, not a mathematician, so if I see anything with inherent sense and beauty I'm automatically suspicious. If it's slightly broken and irregular then I'm much more confident that it's going to work in the real world.   

       Maybe I'll go add bipi as a separate thing, for people like me.
b153b, May 12 2017
  

       //going to work in the real world// What does that mean? In the "real world" we also have particles that can be in two places at once at the quantum level. I like the reality that is Pi being such a conundrum of numerical contradictions.
xenzag, May 12 2017
  

       I never knew there was no character limit on the text fields in a link here!
pocmloc, May 27 2017
  

       A uniform distribution is not normal because a normal one is not uniform.
Voice, May 27 2017
  
      
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