6 ms·
Occam's razor pertains to competing hypotheses that attempt to explain some phenomenon, not the question of which of several equivalent formulations is best. I
by haberman 15y ago
Occam's razor pertains to competing hypotheses that attempt to explain some phenomenon, not the question of which of several equivalent formulations is best.
If you argue that there can only be one, I say tau is better. But to me it's less confusing to have both tau and pi, simply because both of these graphics seem very fundamental to me:
http://tauday.com/images/figures/tau-angles.png http://tauday.com/images/figures/tau-angles.png
http://www.thepimanifesto.com/areas.png http://www.thepimanifesto.com/areas.png
- adambyrtek 15y agoI was referring to the well-known quote attributed to Occam that "entities must not be multiplied beyond necessity".
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- kapitalx 15y agoWhat should be noted is that the picture on the left refers to any circle while the picture on the right refers only to a special case circle. You should also note that the circumference of the unit circle is 1 tou.
- einhverfr 15y agoWell, today I think of Occam's Razor in the spirit in which it was originally offered, according to one translation, "One should not needlessly multiply entities." Not only is it a great answer to the original question ("How many angels can dance on the head of a pin") but it is a great engineering principle as well. So I agree with the GP who says that use of two competing variables which differ only by a factor of two is redundant and runs up against this principle.