December 17, 1998<\/p>\n
OLD CHALLENGE.<\/b>\u00a0Math Chat invited each reader to send in a number. The most commonly submitted number, with the best explanation of why, wins.<\/p>\n
ANSWER. In a tight race between 7 and\u00a0p<\/span>,\u00a0p<\/span>\u00a0wins by a single vote. (p<\/span>\u00a0is what you get when you divide the circumference of any circle by its diameter.) Sebastian Zwicknagl reasons that all integers are equally interesting, but that\u00a0p<\/span>\u00a0is special. Arthur Pasternak realizes that an internet audience might choose the more mathematical number. And as Dean Thomas puts it, “p<\/span>\u00a0is the most mathematical number I know!” Joel Foisy calls it “the best known irrational number.” Rational numbers have decimal expansions that either end or repeat, such as 1\/4 = .25 or 1\/3 = .333…, but<\/p>\n p<\/span>\u00a0= 3.1415926535897932384626433832795028841971…<\/p>\n goes on forever. Amazingly enough,\u00a0p<\/span>\u00a0comes up not only in geometry, but in almost every branch of mathematics.<\/p>\n Other contenders include 0, 1, 2, 17, and 70.<\/p>\n NEW CHALLENGE<\/b>\u00a0(Steve Jabloner). How many times do you think you need to role a normal die to be 90-percent sure that each of the six faces has appeared at least once? Why?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Copyright 1998 Frank Morgan<\/p>\n Send answers, comments, and new questions by email to\u00a0Frank.Morgan@williams.edu<\/a>, to be eligible for\u00a0Flatland<\/i>\u00a0and other book awards. Winning answers will appear in the next Math Chat. Math Chat appears on the first and third Thursdays of each month. Prof. Morgan’s homepage is at\u00a0www.williams.edu\/Mathematics\/fmorgan<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" December 17, 1998 OLD CHALLENGE.\u00a0Math Chat invited each reader to send in a number. The most commonly submitted number, with the best explanation of why, wins. ANSWER. In a tight race between 7 and\u00a0p,\u00a0p\u00a0wins by a single vote. (p\u00a0is what you get when you divide the circumference of any circle by its diameter.) Sebastian Zwicknagl […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2965,"featured_media":0,"parent":3459,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-3582","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/Morgan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3582","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/Morgan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/Morgan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/Morgan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2965"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/Morgan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3582"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/Morgan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3582\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3584,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/Morgan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3582\/revisions\/3584"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/Morgan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/Morgan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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