Posted by Jim Andrada on October 13, 2003 at 15:42:33:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: hmm . . . posted by Oh GAWD on October 13, 2003 at 09:58:11:
I never bothered to learn pi to 100 places, but years and years ago (like 45 years ago) I had reason to memorize a bunch of physical constants to around 15 to 30 places each. We were doing a lot of high precision computing (ie astronomical stuff in the early days of the satellite tracking program)and we used as I recall 15 decimal digit precision for a lot of things. And since in those days we were still doing a lot of calculating the "old fashioned way" ie with human "computers" using desk calculators it was kind of interesting to develop the worksheets that were used for such "multiple precision" work.
You've never truly "lived" until you've had to sit there and pound a Friden calculator for several days to complete one series of calculations.
But it forced you to really appreciate the meaning of "convergence" and other such concepts when you could watch it happening. And learning how to check your calculations as you went along to prevent wasting days due to a boo-boo of some sort. All in all a valuable experience. By golly, you actually started to understand the real meaning of "number". A concept that I'm sure has no meaning to the pocket calculator generation.
Sort of like the salutary effects of practicing Arban 3 hours a day I guess.