On Aug 7, 2006, at 3:30 AM, Yan King Yin wrote:
On 8/7/06, J. Andrew Rogers <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Or even more likely that his definition is a memorized sequence of
> digits.
C'mon, the brain is not so dumb.
Which is precisely why it does not retain patterns more complex than
is strictly necessary to get the job done. The most efficient
representation of pi, for almost all practical purposes, is as a
sequence of a handful of symbols. It is why you will find far more
people who know the beginning of the sequence than know the general
solution.
Anecdotally, I can recall the first fourteen decimal digits with ease
but would have to look up a general solution, despite the fact that I
have learned and re-familiarized myself with the general solutions
multiple times *and* I have never had a use for more than six digits
of the sequence. I do not have the "correct definition" but it is
pretty apparent that it costs me next to nothing to remember a dozen
plus digits, most of which I will never use.
J. Andrew Rogers
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