> Date: Wed, 09 Feb 2000 10:50:44 -0500
>  From: Jeff Woods <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>  Subject: Re: Mersenne: pi
>  
>  You're bumping up against the Fundamental Theorem of Calculus here.   Pi 
>  DOES have a precisely defined value, but you cannot express it in decimal 
>  form.  You can express it as an infinite expansion, however.
>  
>  Just as you can never get to the end of pi, though its value is known, you 
>  can never PRECISELY note the area of a circle -- you can only express it 
>  more and more accurately, depending on how accurate the value of PI you 
use 
> is.

Actually what you're saying is, you can PRECISELY know the area of a circle, 
or PRECISELY know the diameter of a circle, but not both, without resorting 
to using the symbol pi. Sounds like an instance of the Pisenberg Uncertainty 
Principle to me....

Well, back to lurking.
Phil Brady
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