Skip to content Skip to navigation

Connexions

You are here: Home » Content » What is pi?

Navigation

Content Actions
  • Download module PDF
  • Add to ...
    Add the module to:
    • My Favorites
    • A lens
    • An external social bookmarking service
    • My Favorites (What is 'My Favorites'?)
      'My Favorites' is a special kind of lens which you can use to bookmark modules and collections directly in Connexions. 'My Favorites' can only be seen by you, and collections saved in 'My Favorites' can remember the last module you were on. You need a Connexions account to use 'My Favorites'.
    • A lens (What is a lens?)

      Definition of a lens

      Lenses

      A lens is a custom view of Connexions content. You can think of it as a fancy kind of list that will let you see Connexions through the eyes of organizations and people you trust.

      What is in a lens?

      Lens makers point to Connexions materials (modules and collections), creating a guide that includes their own comments and descriptive tags about the content.

      Who can create a lens?

      Any individual Connexions member, a community, or a respected organization.

    • External bookmarks
  • E-mail the author

Recently Viewed

What is pi?

Module by: Christopher Schmitz

Summary: This module presents a brief introduction to the commonly-assigned value of pi (approximately 3.1415).

The mathematical constant represented by the Greek letter ππ should be considered nothing more than the "cheat factor" needed to convert an easily-measured parameter of a circle, namely its radius, to a not-so-easily-measured parameter, its area. The well-known formula is given by A=πr2A=πr2. The value of π is just a bit over 3, but it is more accurately 3.1...or 3.14...or 3.141...or 3.1415. Acually, it requires a never-ending number of values past the decimal point to exactly represent this nasty little number. No wonder we use the symbol π rather than trying to write it out every time we reference it. This way, we can just let our calculator remember the actual value (to a very high precision) whenever we need it. Because so many things in life can be described by "motion along a circle," the value ππ appears very often in science and engineering.

Comments, questions, feedback, criticisms?

Send feedback