13 ms·
I get the feeling that using 3 for pi, is mostly beneficial when speed and volume/throughput is more important than precision. I.e - doing 100 problems with Pi
by TrackerFF 6y ago
I get the feeling that using 3 for pi, is mostly beneficial when speed and volume/throughput is more important than precision.
I.e - doing 100 problems with Pi = 3 probably doesn't even require a calculator, whereas doing the same problems with a decimal approximation will require students to pull out their calculators, and therefore students can do more problems in a shorter time, using pi = 3. This would certainly make sense in countries where rote learning is the king, and students are pretty much churning through problems.
Or, it could be that the vast majority of people will never need the use of an accurate pi value, and it's more beneficial to make them remember some easy value like 3, rather than a confusing decimal or fraction. The people that are going to use pi in any serious manner, will obviously know its value and derivation.