Thursday, December 11, 2008

Posted without further comment

(-1)-iπ = 19.999...

(Google it)

{And here's Randall Munroe to help explain.}

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I don't know whether you meant to do this on purpose, but your post makes it sound like (-1)^(-i) - pi = 19.999999... (that is, repeating nines), when in fact it's something like 19.999129...etc. It's not much of a coincidence. "e^(pi * i) + 1 = 0" is actually better at demonstrating deep mathematical unity, since it involves all five of what for lack of a better term you might say are the deep constants of mathematics: 0, 1, pi, e, and i.

Efrique said...

If I really meant repeating 9's, surely I'd just write "20", wouldn't I?

I did intend, however, to make people wonder if there were any more 9's in the expansion.

Efrique said...

Sorry, on rereading, that reply sounds kind of snotty. I didn't intend it that way but I apologise, because it sure reads that way.