τ Tau vs Pi

[KaladinsSenseOfHumourSpren He/Him]

I realised that there was no thread dedicated to this, so I decided to make one! Tau Day is coming up, after all.

For those of you who don't know, Tau is equal to 2π, and is an alternative circle constant. τ is good because if you use π, a full circle is 2π radians, but with τ, it's just one τ radians, which makes trig waaaaay easier.

So yes, I believe τ is objectively better than π, but I am also too used to π to swap now  

And also most calculators lack tau, and there's no song to help me memorise it, so...

Anyways, what do y'all think of tau?

Edited Sunday at 04:04 AM by KaladinsSenseOfHumourSpren
SPaG

[Through the Living Hopper He/Him]

At this point, π has used enough that it's probably going to stay what we keep using. Plus e^(πi) + 1 = 0.

Edited Sunday at 03:48 AM by Through the Living Hopper

[KaladinsSenseOfHumourSpren He/Him]

3 minutes ago, Through the Living Hopper said:

At this point, π has used enough that it's probably going to stay what we keep using.

Probably, but there's still a chance

3 minutes ago, Through the Living Hopper said:

Plus e^(πi) + 1 = 0.

Oh yes, something I forgot to mention...

With π, Euler's Identity is kind of clunky because you need the +1 to make it a zero

But with tau...

e^(τi) = 1

So yeah, another reason tau is better

[Through the Living Hopper He/Him]

1 minute ago, KaladinsSenseOfHumourSpren said:

With π, Euler's Identity is kind of clunky because you need the +1 to make it a zero

But with tau...

e^(τi) = 1

So yeah, another reason tau is better

Except, 1 and 0 are two identities. 1 is the multiplicative, and 0 is the additive. Having only one of those two doesn't fully let us appreciate the beauty of the formula.

[KaladinsSenseOfHumourSpren He/Him]

2 minutes ago, Through the Living Hopper said:

Except, 1 and 0 are two identities. 1 is the multiplicative, and 0 is the additive. Having only one of those two doesn't fully let us appreciate the beauty of the formula.

Yes, but e to the pi i doesn't equal 1, it equals negative one

The one is just there to make it a nicer number

[Through the Living Hopper He/Him]

Just now, KaladinsSenseOfHumourSpren said:

Yes, but e to the pi i doesn't equal 1, it equals negative one

The one is just there to make it a nicer number

Also to add another identity.

And that's a common way those formulas are written (to equal 0).

[KaladinsSenseOfHumourSpren He/Him]

2 minutes ago, Through the Living Hopper said:

3 minutes ago, KaladinsSenseOfHumourSpren said:

 

Also to add another identity.

 

Why are you adding the multiplicative identity ?

2 minutes ago, Through the Living Hopper said:

 

And that's a common way those formulas are written (to equal 0).

One works just as well

The extra +1 makes it not as good for π's

[Usseewa ✾ She♡They ✾]

the symbol for tau looks like half a pi (the right part of pi), so it's funny  that's it's 2pi..

[Chaos he/him]

Tau is so much better. It'd make learning the unit circle far easier. Half the circle would be tau/2. Way better!

In basically every physics formula, it's always 2pi. That really should indicate that 2pi is the correct one. I mean, when the hell do we even is C = pi * d? Use the radius! The radius is the important one. You might say, "But Eric what about A = pi*r^2?" To which I'd say, A = 1/2 tau*r^2 is very symmetric with the kinetic energy formula. That 1/2 should be there anyway, due to integration.

In fact, I thought that one argument against tau was that the standard normal distribution had a single sqrt(pi) rather than sqrt(2pi), but nope! It does have a 2pi. I guess the integral from -infinity to infinity of e^(-x^2) has the sqrt(pi)...

So anyway, I'm a math professor who loves tau. I'm not at all a fan of pi day, and I won't stand for this pi propaganda merely because "well then we can have pie on pi day". Lame. I spend pi day in my math tutoring center explaining why tau is superior. 

[Shatter He/Him]

I like τ and π. I'm not an ultra mathy guy, so I just decide which one to use and stick with it.

[Keteᛕ He/Him/His]

The formula for the area of a circle is A = pi r^2, compared to A = (tau r^2)/2...

pi is also much older

[KaladinsSenseOfHumourSpren He/Him]

7 minutes ago, Keteᛕ said:

The formula for the area of a circle is A = pi r^2, compared to A = (tau r^2)/2...

That is one equation, when tau makes basically everything else easier. Do you do trig?

Also, as Chaos said, it aligns well with the kinetic energy formula.

8 minutes ago, Keteᛕ said:

pi is also much older

That is not a good reason... geocentrism is way older than anything else...

[Usseewa ✾ She♡They ✾]

13 hours ago, KaladinsSenseOfHumourSpren said:

That is not a good reason... geocentrism is way older than anything else...

aggree

 

makes me question everything we think we know, and believe  

[KaladinsSenseOfHumourSpren He/Him]

9 hours ago, Usseewa said:

 

makes me question everything we think we know, and believe  

Aaaand that is how science happens