| Hot dog pi (2) | Wednesday, Dec 13, 2006 3:27 pm |
Yep that's a pun. WikiHow has an article describing in copious detail how to generate an approximate value of pi by repeatedly throwing a hot dog and counting how many times it lands in a position that crosses a line on the floor. After a few hundred throws, the ratio of twice the number of throws to the number of times a line was crossed should be around 3.14. $2 to the first person who can explain why this happens (my vote's on Rich). (via Cynical-C)
I've got an idea that I'm trying to flesh out before I follow their link to the proof. My goal is to come up with an explanation that takes at least 22/7 times as long to explain as their proof! I'll hopefully post what I come up with in a couple days. I know you are all dying of anticipation...
Rich, you never disappoint.
(For those who don't understand Rich's "humor", 22/7 = 3.14 = pi. Get it? It's funny ... for a certain kind of person.)