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(boing!) Cnoocy Mosque O'Witz ([personal profile] cnoocy) wrote2005-10-07 03:59 pm
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Random Math Fact

26/15 is a very good (off by less than 1/779) approximation for the square root of 3.
I have found this fact useful when doodling on graph paper during meetings, particularly when drawing a clock in a 10x10 square.
It has been said that I am very odd.
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[identity profile] tahnan.livejournal.com 2005-10-07 08:20 pm (UTC)(link)
That's what I hear, yes.

[identity profile] kinkyturtle.livejournal.com 2005-10-08 09:12 am (UTC)(link)
It's probably not as useful with graph paper, but I discovered that sqrt(sqrt(2143/22)) is so close to pi it's off by only about a billionth.

[identity profile] jdm314.livejournal.com 2005-10-09 02:03 am (UTC)(link)
How did you discover that one?

[identity profile] kinkyturtle.livejournal.com 2005-10-09 03:08 am (UTC)(link)
I was playing around with a calculator. I hit the pi button, then the square button twice, and saw 97.409091. I thought, hey, that looks like a repeating decimal! So I worked out that if it were a repeating decimal, 97.4090909090909..., it would be equal to 2143/22. Then I worked out how close sqrt(sqrt(2143/22)) would be to pi, and... wow!
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