Happy Tau Day!

Posted on June 28, 2011 by Brent

Happy \tau day! \tau \approx 6.2831853..., of course, is the fundamental circle constant which represents the ratio of any circle’s circumference to its radius. (In the past people have also used the symbol “\pi” to represent half of \tau; perhaps you’ve heard of it.)

The inimitable Vi Hart has made a video about \tau:

And here’s what \tau sounds like:

For more \tau link goodness, check out Denise’s post.

About Brent

Associate Professor of Computer Science at Hendrix College. Functional programmer, mathematician, teacher, pianist, follower of Jesus.
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3 Responses to Happy Tau Day!

  1. Benjamin L. Russell says:
    July 1, 2011 at 2:25 am

    Antonio Cangiano has also written a blog post on this subject, entitled “Forget Pi, here comes Tau” (see http://math-blog.com/2010/06/28/forget-pi-here-comes-tau/).

  2. Benjamin L. Russell says:
    July 1, 2011 at 2:44 am

    For comparison, here is what π sounds like:

    YouTube – ‪What pi sounds like‬‏

    (The π video bears a close resemblance to, and probably inspired, the described τ video.)

    • Brent says:
      July 1, 2011 at 12:13 pm

      Yes, the two videos are by the same musician. Someone sued him for copyright infringement over the “What pi sounds like” video, claiming a copyright on the melody made from the digits of pi (they wrote a symphony based on this melody in 1992). So the video was taken down, although it looks like New Scientist has put it back up in defiance of the copyright suit.

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