What if I count in base pi
Comment on suck it, math nerds
GnomeKat@lemmy.blahaj.zone 8 months agoPutting things in base 10 is also a definition. Digits aren’t special.
mrsemi@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Comment on suck it, math nerds
GnomeKat@lemmy.blahaj.zone 8 months agoPutting things in base 10 is also a definition. Digits aren’t special.
What if I count in base pi
h3ndrik@feddit.de 8 months ago
Was going to say the same. Also π isn’t infinite. Far from it. it’s not even bigger than 4. It’s representation in the decimal system is just so that it can’t be written there with a finite number of decimal places. But you could just write “π”. It’s short, concise and exact.
DrSteveBrule@mander.xyz 8 months ago
Can pi be expressed with a finite amount of digits in another number system?
Donjuanme@lemmy.world 8 months ago
How about a pi based system, then pi is 1.
mrsemi@lemmy.world 8 months ago
33550336@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Possible, but then the diameter would be an irrational number
Solemn@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 months ago
I don’t think there’s any technical reason we can’t count in base pi
lolcatnip@reddthat.com 8 months ago
I’m pretty happy with being able to write integers in a finite number of digits. Wouldn’t want to give that up.
mexicancartel@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 months ago
Well we need an integer base number system…
lolcatnip@reddthat.com 8 months ago
Not sure where you’re going with the decimal thing. Pi had infinite digits in any base because it’s irrational.
h3ndrik@feddit.de 8 months ago
I thought that was the joke in the comic? That we can’t know numbers exactly that have an infinite decimal expansion. That’d be true for some rational numbers like a third, if you change the basis of the numeral system it’d be different numbers. And irrational numbers too if you have a integer base. But I’d argue how we write down a number isn’t what determines ‘exactness’.