# Tag Archives: pi

## The Basel problem

I wanted to follow up on something I mentioned in my previous post: I claimed that At the time I didn’t know how to prove this, but I did some quick research and today I’m going to explain it! It … Continue reading

Posted in infinity, number theory | Tagged , , , , , | 9 Comments

## Happy Tau Day!

Happy day! , 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 “” to represent half of ; perhaps you’ve heard of … Continue reading

Posted in famous numbers, links, video | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

## Book reviews: Math Jokes 4 Mathy Folks and Easy as Pi

Math Jokes 4 Mathy Folks A few months ago, Patrick Vennebush was kind enough to send me a review copy of his new book, Math Jokes 4 Mathy Folks. It’s a treasure-trove of math-related jokes with a huge range of … Continue reading

Posted in books, humor, links, review | Tagged , , ,

## Irrationality of pi: the integral that wasn't

And now for the punchline! Today we’ll show that, for large enough values of , completing the proof of the irrationality of . First, let’s show that is positive when . We know that is positive for . But I … Continue reading

Posted in algebra, calculus, convergence, famous numbers, proof, trig | Tagged , , , , | 8 Comments

## Irrationality of pi: the impossible integral

We’re getting close! Last time, we defined a new function and showed that and are both integers, and that . So, consider the following: \$latex \begin{array}{cl} &\frac{d}{dx} [ F'(x) \sin x – F(x) \cos x ] \\ = & F^{\prime\prime}(x)\sin … Continue reading

Posted in famous numbers, proof | | 4 Comments

## Irrationality of pi: curiouser and curiouser

I’ve been remiss in posting here lately, which I will attribute to Christmas and New Year travelling and general craziness, and then starting a new semester craziness… but things have settled down a bit, so here we go again! Since … Continue reading

Posted in famous numbers, proof | | 10 Comments

## Irrationality of pi: derivatives of f

In my previous post in this series, we defined the function and showed that . Today we’ll show the surprising fact that, for every positive integer , although and are not necessarily zero, they are always integers. (The notation means … Continue reading

Posted in calculus, famous numbers, proof | | 10 Comments