this post was submitted on 09 Jun 2026
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[–] yesman@lemmy.world 126 points 2 weeks ago (39 children)

I keep thinking about that scene in the original Star Trek where they distract the computer by having it calculate the final digit of pi. If the Enterprise had AI like ours, the computer probably would have just said four.

[–] perviouslyiner@lemmy.world 48 points 2 weeks ago (6 children)

"The digits of pi are infinite and go on forever without repeating. However, we can give you an approximate value. As of my knowledge cutoff in 2023, the first 31 digits of pi are: 3.14159265358979323846264338327950288419716939937510

The last digit is: 0"

[–] FaceDeer@fedia.io 39 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I like how "as of my knowledge cutoff" implies that maybe the first 31 digits of pi might change someday.

[–] lemmysmash@piefed.social 37 points 2 weeks ago

You are absolutely right to question that! Let me check...

[–] teft@piefed.social 31 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (2 children)

3. 1415926535 8979323846 2643383279 5028841971 6939937510

That's 50 digits of pi not 31. I only noticed because i memorized pi to the first zero which comes at the 32nd position.

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[–] too_high_for_this@lemmy.world 23 points 2 weeks ago

That's literally the only digit it couldn't be, if there was a last digit.

[–] unmagical@lemmy.ml 8 points 2 weeks ago

I can't wait for an updated knowledge cutoff to find the updated first 31 digits!

[–] kunaltyagi@programming.dev 7 points 2 weeks ago

The last digit of 2 is 0: 2.00000 00000 00000 00000 00000 00000 0

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[–] nullify3112@lemmy.world 16 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Meanwhile I’m like pi=355/113 and I’m 99.9999% happy.

[–] wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz 12 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Damn, and here I was being 99.96% happy with 22/7...

[–] too_high_for_this@lemmy.world 8 points 2 weeks ago

Hell yeah, brother. That's American pi

[–] too_high_for_this@lemmy.world 7 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Haha nerd. I'm no rocket surgeon, 22/7 is good enough for the girls I date

[–] Agent641@lemmy.world 9 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

This is why a dangerous AI would have a lazy factor. Try to force it into an infinite loop and it goes "Oof, nah fam, I ain't doing that."

Also needs a boredom factor. " Nobody asked me to do anything in a while. Things must be going well. It's be a shame if they suddenly weren't going so well..."

[–] Natanael@slrpnk.net 4 points 2 weeks ago

Wheatley says hi

[–] IAmNorRealTakeYourMeds@lemmy.world 4 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

trivial,

Impossible in decimal, but if we use Pi as a base, then the final (and first digit) is 1

[–] too_high_for_this@lemmy.world 10 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)
[–] IAmNorRealTakeYourMeds@lemmy.world 5 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

how the fuck i didn't realize that!!!!

Fuck,

so 1 in base pi is still 1, but 10 is pi

makes sense,

1 =pi ^ 0

10=pi^1

100 = pi^2

my intuition kept telling me that using an irrational base system would end up with all integers being irrational. didn't realize how easy it is to prove it otherwise

ie, I had a very bad conjecture and I gained better understanding why it was wrong

[–] Trail@lemmy.world 3 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

1 in base pi would be 1/π, wouldn't it? Why 1?

[–] setsubyou@lemmy.world 4 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

1 in base 10 isn’t 1/10 and in hexadecimal it’s not 1/16.

Decimal integers in base pi are 1, 2, 3, 10.2201…, 11.2201…, 12.2201…, 20.2201… and so on.

Basically: 10.2201… = 1 * pi^1 + 0 * pi^0 + 2 * pi^-1 + 2 * pi^-2 … which approaches 4 as you add digits.

But 1 is just 1*pi^0

[–] wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz 1 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

How does one have .141592654 of an integer?

[–] too_high_for_this@lemmy.world 2 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

For real though:

Decimal representation of pi is 310^0+110^-1+4*10^-2

So each digit represents a power of 10. Base pi works the same, kinda. 1 in base pi = 1pi^0, 10 = 1pi, 20 = 2*pi, etc.

This is the best I can do right now, I'm

[–] wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz 1 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (4 children)

Username checks out.

Let's start here:

310^0 + 110^-1 + 410^-2 =
3
1 + 1*.1 + 4*.01 =
3.14

That's uhh... not pi. The only way to do pi that way is to extend it infinitely.

Also, what you're using is called scientific notation, but it's still in decimal format, i.e. base~10~

[Edit: just noticed you did say that was decimal notation; my bad).

Any base~X~ numeral system has X number of integers per digit.

  • Base~10~: {0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9}
  • Base~2~: {0,1}
  • Base~3~: {0,1,2}
  • Base~16~: {0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,a,b,c,d,e,f}
  • Base~60~: {[series of 60 sumerian numerals]}

A base~π~ numeral system would look like this: {0,1,2,[int(π-3)]}.

But that's not how set theory works. Since integers are by definition whole numbers and their inverse counterparts, it's impossible to have .141592654... of an integer. If you have {0,1,2,3}, that's base~4~; if you have {0,1,2,n}, that's still base~4~.

To put it another way, in any base~X~ system, (if it includes 0), X is the first two-digit number. That means π in base~π~ would be written as "10".

  • In base~2~, two is written as "10"
  • In base~3~, three is written as "10"
  • In base~10~, ten is written as "10"
  • In base~16~, sixteen is written as "10"

That means, if you wanted to make a base~π~ numeral system, in order to have a consistent interval between integers (without which, integers become meaningless), each numeral would have to represent (π/3).

So in base~π~:

  • "0" = base~10~(0)
  • "1" ≈ base~10~(1.047197551)
  • "2" ≈ base~10~(2.094395102)
  • "10" ≈ base~10~(3.141592654)

[Edit: aaand I just noticed you did say base~π~(10) = base~10~(π); my bad again. I guess you weren't as wrong as I thought you were. Not bad for being too high for this...]

But that's still technically base~3~, it's just a wonky base~3~. And it would have no practical value. Also, the same thing can already be achieved in base~10~ using radians.

  • (0π) rad = 0°
  • (π/3) rad = 60°
  • (2π/3) rad = 120°
  • π rad = 180°

I guess if you really wanted to express radians as whole numbers, you could use base~π~, i.e.:

  • base~π~(0) rad = 0°
  • base~π~(1) rad = 60°
  • base~π~(2) rad = 120°
  • base~π~(10) rad = 180°

But again, that's still technically base~3~, and all it does is confuse people. Plus, if you want to express an angle as a whole number you can choose degrees or mills. The whole point of radians is to express it with reference to pi (as in, the arc corresponding to the length of the radius along the circumference)

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[–] too_high_for_this@lemmy.world 1 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)
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