What is a practical or everyday use of the Pi (“π”)?
In: Mathematics
Whenever you create a physical object, you’re bound to encounter pi in your planning. The reason people think this knowledge is irrelevant to them is because most people don’t create objects anymore, but instead just consume them.
A recent example for me. I was making a bag with a round base that was 10cm in diameter from my scrap fabric pile. straight away I knew that the length of fabric I needed for the sides would be 31.4cm plus 1cm for hem allowance. I didn’t have to measure the circumference of the base to know that. (circumference = diameter x 3.14) Straight away I could reject any fabric that was shorter than a foot without wasting any fabric scraps that were longer.
I’ve also used Pi to work our the volume of containers and to give an estimate of the amount of concrete I need to fill post holes.
* The average person doesn’t need to use Pi on an everyday basis.
* But lots of scientists, researchers, and engineers do.
* And they reason they teach *everyone* Pi in school is because *everyone* should get the chance to chose a technical career if they want to.
* Pi is also a great way to teach the power of critical thinking and problem solving, the overall concepts of which are applicable to lots of “everyday” jobs.
Used a lot in game programming or other programming enviorments where you want effects in shape of an arc or a circle.
I can only speak for myself, but my bicycle computer needs the circumference in mm of the wheel to calculate the speed of the moving bicycle correctly.
You get that by multiplying the diameter of the wheel in mm by pi.
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