November 30, 2006

• "Math is a never ending circle"
• Math, eh? Ohh, do go on! *presses emergency Math-avoidance button*
• I saw this last night and looked up the Buffon's Needle problem. It was...confusing. Thinking is, like, so hard. You reminded me though, I remembered that Buffon made some contribution to evolutionary theory too. He was quite the scientist.
• Buffon's Needle is one of the oldest problems in the field of geometrical probability. It was first stated in 1777. It involves dropping a needle on a lined sheet of paper and determining the probability of the needle crossing one of the lines on the page. The remarkable result is that the probability is directly related to the value of pi. java applet simulation here (it only worked in IE for me)
• I thought his name was Buffoon and his whole life he has been overcompensating. (java applet worked in FF)
• *scratches head* Ralph is a pi-dog? *fleas*
• mmmmmmmm, hot dogs and pie...
• pumpkin pi is right for I!
• Why is every thread about "tossing the wiener?" Can't we have some decency here.
• If pi can't be calculated using bananas, I vote to abolish it. The only math we really need can be done with good old-fashioned pie. Yes, banana cream pie. With topping. Everybody gets one big slice equal to 1/4 of an 8 inch pie. Now that's math we can all appreciate.
• *scrapes cloyingly sweet topping off his slice*
• > If pi can't be calculated using bananas, I vote to abolish it. 1. Peel a banana 2. Pull one of those stringy things off 3. Wrap stringy thing around banana, cut off enough stringy thing to wrap once around banana. 4. Slice banana at place you measured it. 5. Use remaining stringy thing to measure diameter of cross-section; cut off enough stringy thing to match diameter. 6. pi = (first cut off stringy thing / second cut off string thing). see how many stringy things of length of second stringy thing it would take to match first stringy thing.