How Many Decimals of Pi Do We Really Need? (2016)

Posted by joeyespo on Tuesday November 28, 2017 @03:42PM
from the jpl.nasa.gov dept.

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/edu/news/2016/3/16/how-many-decimals-of-pi-do-we-really-need/

( 3 comments | 15 points | on HN )

Re:How Many Decimals of Pi Do We Really Need? (2016) by sempron64 on Tuesday November 28, 2017 @05:23PM (#15802444)

  >>> len("3.141592653589793") - 1
  16
  >> math.log(2**51) / math.log(10)
  15.35252977886304

The precision of pi used by NASA is suspiciously close the precision limit of IEEE 64-bit floating point integers, a reason which is not given the article :). Interesting nonetheless.

edit: formatting

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:How Many Decimals of Pi Do We Really Need? (2016) by davymac on Tuesday November 28, 2017 @07:40PM (#15803458)

Unrelated: love your handle

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:How Many Decimals of Pi Do We Really Need? (2016) by sempron64 on Wednesday November 29, 2017 @10:18PM (#15813190)

Thanks!

[ Parent | on HN ]