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The Tau Manifesto

Michael Hartl, Mar 14, 2016

OK, I'm no mathematician. But this article has me convinced. "Pi (π) is a pedagogical disaster. Try explaining to a twelve-year-old (or to a thirty-year-old) why the angle measure for an eighth of a circle—one slice of pizza—is π/8. Wait, I meant π/4. See what I mean? It's madness—sheer, unadulterated madness." The author proposes instead that we use Tau (τ) which has the value 2π, or 6.283185307179586… It creates a lot more symmetry in formulae across a range of mathematics. That, by the way, would make Tau Day (to Americans, at least) June 28.

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