🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <5hhge0$48q@raven.cc.ukans.edu>, Greffindel
<ipsifend@eagle.cc.ukans.edu> writes
>Jonathan Cunningham (jlc@sofluc.demon.co.uk) wrote:
-- snip --
>: Be careful if you are determining pi by measuring the ratio of the
>: circumference of a circle to its diameter: a one tonne weight in a 10 metre
>: diameter circle will affect the value of pi in about the 24th or 25th
>: decimal place (general relativity and curvature of space-time etc.). If
>: you wish to try this, it's worth knowing that the correct value of
>: pi should be around 3.14159265358979323846264338 in flat space, although
>: the last two or three digits will be different with the one tonne weight
>: in place. :-).
>
>: Jonathan
>
>(thinks) (thinks) (thinks)  You know, that makes sense.  What could
>you say about the set of weights such that under their influence, the
>"effective pi" would become rational?  Algebraic? How big a weight
>would you need to get a "pi" of 4?
>
>--
>--Greffindel the Plaid

Jonathan obviously understands the physics of this better than I do, but
putting in a weight must *reduce* the local "pi", surely?

Since there are algebraic and rational numbers arbitrarily close to any
transcendental number like pi the same would be true of the set of
values of our central mass.  If we can assign it a random real value
then most such would leave "pi" transcendental, but we could find
infinitely many values within any range >0 which make "pi" rational.

Of course quantum mechanics says, does it not, that masses cannot be
given an arbitrary real value but only one chosen from a set of discrete
values....
-- 

Martin Ward

_________________________________________________________________________

"When *I* use a word", Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, "it
 means just what I choose it to mean - neither more nor less".
"The question is", said Alice, "whether you *can* make words mean so many
 different things".
"The question is", said Humpty-Dumpty, "which is to be master - that's all".

"Through the Looking-Glass" - Lewis Carroll.
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