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Article View: comp.lang.pascal.delphi.misc
Article #681

Re: Buffon's Needles

#681
From: Dr John Stockton
Date: Fri, 25 Jun 1999 00:00
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JRS:  In article <37737E88.C3B802D7@research.telcordia.com> of Fri, 25
Jun 1999 09:05:12 in news:comp.lang.pascal.delphi.misc, Emmanuel BRESSON
<ebresson@research.telcordia.com> wrote:
>> A quick test shows that the result obtained from the above code depends
>> on, but is not proportional to, the value used for Pi.
>
>The probability a needle intersects a line is 1/pi.
>A efficient formula to compute pi can be found at
>http://www.mathsoft.com/asolve/plouffe/plouffe.html
>
>La probabilite qu'un aiguille intersecte une ligne est 1/pi.
>Une formule efficace pour calculer pi se trouve sur
>http://www.mathsoft.com/asolve/plouffe/plouffe.html

2.0/Pi, if the needle can just span a board.

Possibly you miss my point; I am referring here not to the ideal Pi, but
to the value actually used in the calculation, which can be changed.  As
the result is not proportional, one might possibly determine Pi as that
value which, when used in the simulation, leads to a result of itself.

The BBP algorithm is certainly interesting; I've put it in my
longcalc.pas, and, if base 16 is set, one can see the digits of 16^n*Pi
settling one by one.  I don't recall any claim that it is particularly
efficient, though.
 
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From: Dr John Stockton <jrs@merlyn.demon.co.uk>
Subject: Re: Buffon's Needles
Date: 1999/06/25
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