Half Tau Day is Fast Approaching!

Hello all! I hope you're all gearing up for $\frac{\tau}{2} = \pi $ day! I am a giant proponent of $\tau$, and you should be too. For those of you who don't know, $\tau = 2\pi$. $\tau$ is a much more natural circle constant, as a circle is, after all, defined by its radius, not its diameter. One can find an incredibly compelling argument for $\tau$ in Michael Hartl's Tau Manifesto. I know I'll be spending Half Tau Day unwillingly participating in $\pi$ activities with my blissfully ignorant peers, who I will inevitably urge to join Brilliant and educate themselves about the marvels of $\tau$ !

Have a safe and happy $\frac{\tau}{2}$ day!

#Geometry #Pi #Circles #Tau

Easy Math Editor

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`2 \times 3`	$2 \times 3$
`2^{34}`	$2^{34}$
`a_{i-1}`	$a_{i-1}$
`\frac{2}{3}`	$\frac{2}{3}$
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Comments

I feel stupid for asking this but isn't $\pi$ day on $14$ March?

Siddhartha Srivastava - 6 years, 3 months ago

Yeah! This $\pi$ day is special though, because it will be (in the American format of month/day/year) $3/14/15$ . $\tau$ will have its revenge on $6/28/31$ !

Ryan Tamburrino - 6 years, 3 months ago

To be honest they are equally valid, as $\pi$ is better in some situations and $\tau$ is better in others. For example: circumference = $\tau$ r may be easier to deal but then you end up with an area of: $\frac{\tau}{2}$ $r^{2}$ . You may also look at it from a trigonometry point of view... all the trigonometric functions repeat themselves every $\tau$ radians, but then when proving that $\zeta$ (2) = $\frac{\pi^2}{6}$ you need $\pi$ to obtain: $\frac{sin(x)}{x} = \displaystyle\prod_{n=1}^{\infty} (1-(\frac{n\pi }{x})^2)$ and the argument continues....

Curtis Clement - 6 years, 3 months ago

I will concede a few small victories to $\pi$ , including that one that you mentioned regarding the $\zeta$ function. However, if you look at the Tau Manifesto, Hartl shows that area of a circle with $\tau$ follows other quadratic forms of other formulas from physics. So, that $\frac{1}{2}$ out in front isn't quite as unnatural as it seems.

Ryan Tamburrino - 6 years, 3 months ago

Maybe there ought to be a friendly Tau vs pi debate

Curtis Clement - 6 years, 3 months ago

Math	Appears as
Remember to wrap math in `\(` ... `\)` or `\[` ... `\]` to ensure proper formatting.
`2 \times 3`	$2 \times 3$
`2^{34}`	$2^{34}$
`a_{i-1}`	$a_{i-1}$
`\frac{2}{3}`	$\frac{2}{3}$
`\sqrt{2}`	$\sqrt{2}$
`\sum_{i=1}^3`	$\sum_{i=1}^3$
`\sin \theta`	$\sin \theta$
`\boxed{123}`	$\boxed{123}$