off topic

[Vortex]

1 + 1 = 2

BLASPHEMY!

[Anteroinen]

Well, the tau one isn't my idea of course. Vihart explains it quite nicely here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jG7vhMMXagQ

[Oleander]

Tau is lame! Pi is a much prettier symbol.

[Paranormal]

I found out I'm going to New Orleans next April, that followed by a theme park tour in July/August. 2013 is going to be another amazing travelling year for myself and my family. I'm so psyched for it.

[oilage]

Tau is lame! Pi is a much prettier symbol.

Well, sure, but Pi is (still) wrong. It represents only half of what it should be. But using the same symbol would be confusing.

[Anteroinen]

Tau is lame! Pi is a much prettier symbol.

Mathematically or aesthetically? Mathematically tau has many nice properties, although so do pi and half pi (eta). Aesthetically speaking, I've always liked xi (ξ) and zeta (ζ), tau is rather boring.

[Oleander]

Aesthetically - mathematically *most* rational (and irrational) multiples of pi are beautiful. All that tau business about it being more convenient or whatever is just dumb.

[oilage]

this was my introduction to Tau:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H69YH5TnNXI

[Vortex]

Well, it's true that 2π appears far more often than π in most of the equations, but if there has been an established consensus for millenia it would be kinda contraproducent to change it now, unless we coexist with both, letting everyone choose between them (I myself often use a contraction of 2π in handwriting, though not as tau, but as a weird sort of ligature with the 2 on top of the π or... it's so weird I can't even describe it XD)
Also, we are free to redefine everything in maths, but at the risk of that nobody understands you XD

[Anteroinen]

Well, it's true that 2π appears far more often than π in most of the equations, but if there has been an established consensus for millenia it would be kinda contraproducent to change it now, unless we coexist with both, letting everyone choose between them (I myself often use a contraction of 2π in handwriting, though not as tau, but as a weird sort of ligature with the 2 on top of the π or... it's so weird I can't even describe it XD)
Also, we are free to redefine everything in maths, but at the risk of that nobody understands you XD

Pretty much. I mean in physics it doesn't matter if it is 2π or は^å as long as they have the same value. I've watched a couple of videos on this subject and although I still haven't started using tau, I've certainly gained a better understanding of how trigonometric functions work. Ergo, I think this is a nice topic to bring up. XD