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Noodle
ANSWERS: 5
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pi plenty of explanation there..
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It comes immediately after the initial 3
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Well it crops up everywhere. Not just in mathematics but in physical systems as well. Famous example is Heisenberg's uncertainty principle. You can never know the momentum and position of a 'particle' exactly there is always an uncertainty and this uncertainty is given by the relationship Uncertainty in position x uncertainty in momentum must be greater than or equal to Planck's constant divided by 2 x pi. This is no mathematical trick but a fundamental part of the real world. Just one example. Without knowing this number and its properties we would certainly not be conversing over a world wide web for example. There are a few numbers that do this, 'e' (named for Euler I believe?) is another good example.
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That is like asking "what is the point in the Pacific Ocean?". It is not something that has a point, it is something that is /there/. It is a number that seems to be embedded deep into the structure of the Universe. Amongst other things, it seems to ralate fundamentally to the mathematics of oscillations - that is, things that repeat themselves. And that is in turn central to the ability of the Universe to support life - if things never happened the same twice, life would be impossible. When you start trying to describe the Universe in numbers, Pi keeps on popping up, even when you don't expect it.
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Measure the circumference of a circle. Divide by the diameter. You get pi. That's all it is. Nothing to get. Often crops up when circlular things are involved.
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