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Or just use digits of pi; most people have at least 10 digits memorized, some have 20+ memorized. There's also a formula you can memorize for calculating the nt
by umvi 7y ago
Or just use digits of pi; most people have at least 10 digits memorized, some have 20+ memorized. There's also a formula you can memorize for calculating the nth digit of pi, so you have infinite random numbers without memorizing an esoteric algorithm with a bazillion corner cases.
That said, I still thought this was an interesting article and I loved the animated bar graphs.
- arkadiyt 7y agoIt's still an unsolved problem whether or not the digits of pi are uniformly distributed.
- umvi 7y agoJust try it out for yourself. Analyze the distribution of the first billion digits and I think you'll find they will produce a more uniform distribution than this algorithm in the article given 1 billion human responses...
- andrewbarba 7y agoMost people have at least 10 digits memorized? That is one bold claim
- umvi 7y agoI meant here on Hacker News. I would guess most of us here played with our TI-83s enough to know the first 10
- moksly 7y agoI wonder how many people on HN have even seen a TI-83, I don’t think I’ve seen one since I sold mine when I finished the Danish equivalent of high school in 99. I mean, they were apparently discontinued in 2004, that’s 15 years ago.
- woodruffw 7y agoI'm from the US and graduated high school in 2014; TI-83s were ubiquitous. I'm not sure if they were the original model or the "plus," though.
- joks 7y agoProbably the plus. The TI-84 Plus was the calculator my high school (and maybe middle school) offered - I graduated in 2016.
- corysama 7y agoIn the US TI has established a multi-decade monopoly in schools. Basically, the teachers are only familiar with specifically them, so they require student only use them, so new teachers are only familiar with them. As a result, a new TI-85 equivalent is only trivially upgraded from what I used 25 years ago and costs exactly as much minus inflation.
- moksly 7y agoWow, why aren’t students using laptops?
- corysama 7y agoIn college some students use laptops for taking notes. Not so much in high school. But in both during tests, electronics are strictly regulated to prevent cheating. Teachers know how to factory reset TI calculators. So, they and only they are allowed. Also, teachers know how to instruct how to use TI calculators. So, they are sometimes even required for certain classes.
- celticninja 7y agoI'm not sure that most people have memorized the first 10 digits of Pi. I know 3 for certain, any more than that and I can look them up.
- stOneskull 7y agoI think most would know the first 5 because it's pretty accurate making 3.14159 into 3.1416 and you forget what's after the 9
- joks 7y ago3.14159 might even be a stretch though. I'm pretty sure the average person (or american at least) would only know 3.14
- spookthesunset 7y agoThat is pretty arrogant to think that just because somebody posts here they have 10 digits of pi memorized. This is a public forum. Anybody can post. You and everybody else posting here are in all likelihood just average intelligence. There is nothing exclusive about using this forum. You aren’t the first or the last random person to exist here. Don’t let your own supposition of your intelligence get to your head. There is even a theory for that.... Dunning Kruger.
- umvi 7y agoMemorizing digits of pi is easier than memorizing the algorithm in the article. 3.14159265, come on, stop making such a big deal of this.
- davidddavidson 7y agoI count only nine digits so it looks like you gatekept yourself out.
- PointersAreFun 7y agoI have found that 3.2 is a good enough approximation, with the added benefit of being perfectly representable as an integer (32) when scaled by 10, simplifying the math and optimizing the performance since floats are not necessary, just integer divide the result by 10