Article 33248 of alt.sysadmin.recovery: Path: matra.meer.net!news.spies.com!genmagic!sgigate.sgi.com!nntp.coast.net!frankensun.altair.com!bofh.ece.ufl.edu!usenet.eel.ufl.edu!yama.mcc.ac.uk!news.salford.ac.uk!aber!not-for-mail From: auj@aber.ac.uk (Alun "Da Penguin" Jones) Newsgroups: alt.sysadmin.recovery Subject: pi (was Re: JMS is God) Date: 7 Jun 1996 14:39:05 +0100 Organization: Prifysgol Cymru (University of Wales) Aberystwyth Lines: 76 Message-ID: <4p9bdp$k6o@osfa.aber.ac.uk> References: <4n5ako$qoi@junior.wariat.org> <87n33aivno.fsf@zaphod.caz.ny.us> <4od5di$t38@madeline.INS.CWRU.Edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: osfa.aber.ac.uk Further up the screen jjs17@po.cwru.edu wrote: > > OK, fine, here's the first 800-odd digits[1]. > > 3.1415926535897932384626433832795028841971693993751058209749445923078164062 > 862089986280348253421170679821480865132823066470938446095505822317253594081 > 284811174502841027019385211055596446229489549303819644288109756659334461284 > 756482337867831652712019091456485669234603486104543266482133936072602491412 > 737245870066063155881748815209209628292540917153643678925903600113305305488 > 204665213841469519415116094330572703657595919530921861173819326117931051185 > 480744623799627495673518857527248912279381830119491298336733624406566430860 > 213949463952247371907021798609437027705392171762931767523846748184676694051 > 320005681271452635608277857713427577896091736371787214684409012249534301465 > 495853710507922796892589235420199561121290219608640344181598136297747713099 > 605187072113499999983729780499510597317328160963185 Nope, some of those digits are even! Here are the first 800-odd digits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ere's a little mnemonic I picked up on the net some time back. The original was a DVI file, formatted in a circle. You can view that at http://www.aber.ac.uk/~auj/pi.dvi For a time I stood pondering on circle sizes. The large computer mainframe quietly processed all of its assembly code. Inside my entire hope lay for figuring out an elusive expansion. Value: pi. Decimals expected soon. I nervously entered a format procedure. The mainframe processed the request. Error. I, again entering it, carefully retyped. This iteration gave zero error printouts in all_success. Intently I waited. Soon, roused by thoughts within me, appeared narrative mnemonics relating digits to verbiage! The idea appeared to exist but only in abbreviated fashion_little phrases typically. Pressing on I then resolved, deciding firmly about a sum of decimals to use_ likely around four hundred, presuming the computer code soon halted! Pondering these ideas, words appealed to me. But a problem of zeros did exist. Pondering more, solution subsequently appeared. Zero suggests a punctuation element. Very novel! My thoughts were culminated. No periods, I concluded. All residual marks of punctuation=zeros. First digit expansion ****** then came before me. On examining some problems unhappily arose. That imbecilic bug! The printout I possessed showed four nine as foremost decimals. Manifestly troubling. Totally every number looked wrong. Repairing the bug took much effort. A pi mnemonic with letters truly seemed good. Counting ** all the letters probably should suffice. Reaching for a record would be helpful. Consequently, I continued, expecting a good final answer from computer. First number slowly displayed on the flat screen - 3. Good. Trailing digits apparently were right also. Now my memory scheme must probably be implementable. The technique was chosen, elegant in scheme: by self reference a tale mnemonically helpful was ensured. An able title suddenly existed - "Circle Digits". Taking pen I began. Words emanated uneasily. I desired more synonyms. Speedily I found my (alongside me) Thesaurus. Rogets is probably an essential in doing this, instantly I decided. I wrote and erased more. The Rogets clearly assisted immensely. My story proceeded (how lovely!) faultlessly. The end, above all, would soon joyfully overtake. So, this memory helper ***** is incontestably complete. Soon I will locate publisher. There a narrative will I trust immediately appear, producing fame. The End. Cheers, Alun. -- /d{def}def/a{add}d/s{sub}d/u{usertime}d % Alun Jones, IBS, UW Aberystwyth /x 0 d/y 0 d 9 9 scale 35 47 translate/b u d .1 setlinewidth{u b s 6e4 gt {exit}if/x x 4 a d/v 1 x s d/x y 2 x mul 3 s abs sqrt x 0 lt{neg}if a d/y v d x y moveto .1 0 rlineto stroke}loop showpage% You may need %!PS-Adobe