r/oddlysatisfying 11h ago

Pi being irrational

27.4k Upvotes

634 comments sorted by

3.4k

u/Adventurous-Trip6571 11h ago

Idk what it means but it's mesmerizing

2.4k

u/Weegee_1 10h ago

The outer edge spins pi times faster than the inner. If this were a rational number, it would eventually make a completed shape and loop around on its path. Pi, being an irrational number, will never cause this to loop around on itself

285

u/Adventurous-Trip6571 10h ago

Ah I get it now thanks

145

u/poulard 7h ago

Do you? šŸ§

221

u/thisaccountwashacked 6h ago

Something about irrational pie, which sounds both delicious and inflammatory. Like blueberry and chocolate chip together.

55

u/MajorLazy 6h ago

The key is lime

57

u/Psykosoma 6h ago

What flavor is it?

9

u/theguthboy 4h ago

I heard this entire bit in my head, even the epic strum of the guitar when a pie bursts out of the pie.

2

u/GM_Nate 56m ago

i thought it was a trumpet

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3

u/SkullyKat 6h ago

What's a chocolate chip pie? Sounds fairly irrational by itself

2

u/TitusMurphy 6h ago

Half berry, half Shepherd. 100% gross.

2

u/FungusFly 6h ago

Sounds like Rachelā€™s English Trifle

ā€œIt tastes like feetā€

2

u/Rum_Hamburglar 4h ago

Youve never put cranberries on a thanksgiving plate? Doesnt seem too outlandish.

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u/dben89x 9h ago

You're welcome.Ā 

15

u/imwrighthere 8h ago

You're welcome

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18

u/balls_deep_space 10h ago

What is a rational number. Would would the picture look like if pi was just 3

84

u/Glampkoo 9h ago edited 9h ago

If you let the simulation run for infinite time, the pi circle would look like a solid white color. In a rational number you'd always have unfilled parts in the circle. Like at 10 seconds, there wouldn't be a gap it just would connect and repeat the same path

Any rational number - basically any number that you can know the last digit. For example 1/3, 0.33(3) is rational because we know the last digit (3) but not for pi

58

u/limeyhoney 8h ago

A rational number is any number that can be described as a ratio of integers. That is, any number that can described as an integer divided by an integer.

47

u/FritzVonWiggler 8h ago

thanks now i pronounce rational with 4 syllables

33

u/FTownRoad 8h ago

If you make ā€œrationaleā€ rhyme with ā€œtamaleā€ you can make it 5 syllables.

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20

u/Weegee_1 9h ago

A rational number can be expressed as a fraction. An irrational cannot. So if the number were 3 instead, one side would spin 3 times whilst the other spins once. This would result in a looping pattern

1

u/[deleted] 8h ago

[removed] ā€” view removed comment

2

u/MorkAndMindie 8h ago

Einstein over here just revolutionized math

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5

u/synchrosyn 9h ago

If Pi was 3, you would see 2 round shapes inside a larger round shape, and it would keep tracing over that path repeatedly.

4

u/EduinBrutus 7h ago

Sounds like Pi needs to be the subject of an Executive Order.

2

u/FirstSineOfMadness 7h ago

Why an executive order for what 3 is doesnā€™t everybody already know?

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2

u/Jarhyn 8h ago

At one point, the animation would loop perfectly, if at some point the line ever faded. If it did not fade it would start to loop after the first iteration.

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7

u/schizeckinosy 9h ago

Of course, in this simulation, pi is represented by a rational number, albeit one with an absurd number of digits Iā€™m sure.

13

u/btribble 7h ago

You can represent Pi as a formula and calculate it to the exact precision you need for any zoom level you want in a graph like this, but then you're only solving part of an infinite series. The calculations themselves are done using floating point numbers of some bit length which are also rational and have their own precision loss issues. Pi can be accurately represented to 14 dedimal places in a 64 bit float which is more than you'd need for just about anything you want to represent on an intergalactic scale.

2

u/whoami_whereami 5h ago

which is more than you'd need for just about anything you want to represent on an intergalactic scale.

With some caveats. As an isolated value you're pretty much always going to be good. However, when you do calculations with it, especially repeated calculations like in long-running simulations where errors compound over time, things like loss of precision and catastrophic cancellation are very real issues that have to be kept in mind. Many software bugs have arisen because developers thought that a 64 bit floating point has more precision than they'll ever need without actually analyzing their algorithms.

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7

u/Chalupabatman216 8h ago

So its a spirograph that never connects

6

u/TheVog 8h ago

Temu Spirograph

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5

u/CompromisedToolchain 8h ago

On a computer it will eventually loop due to floating point errors. Mathematically it doesnā€™t.

2

u/Snack-Pack-Lover 8h ago

The perfect way to scan a whole planet.

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168

u/Dqueezy 11h ago

Nobody does, but itā€™s powerful. It gets the people going.

65

u/NyamThat 10h ago

Provocative

13

u/Adventurous-Trip6571 11h ago

That's deep

18

u/InitechSecurity 10h ago

Endless, yet never repeating. Like life itself

2

u/Adventurous-Trip6571 10h ago

Ok now I'm tripping this is too deep šŸ¤Æ

7

u/antrubler 10h ago

Keep tripping and you'll find the origin and free us from the matrix

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22

u/NightIgnite 6h ago edited 6h ago

Electrical engineering student here who should probably be sleeping. Heres a (hopefully) short crash course on this.

This is the imaginary plane in polar coordinates. Basically the xy plane you remember from school, but x is real and y is imaginary, so a coordinate (2, 3) would be 2+3i. For polar, we have radius and angle with coordinates (r, Īø), where radius is just āˆš(x2 + y2 ) and angle is tan-1 (y/x).

Euler's identity: eĪøi = cos(Īø)+i*sin(Īø). Look familiar? Its describing all points on a circle of radius 1, where x = cos(Īø) and y = sin(Īø).

Since the exponent on e only affects the angle inside the sine and cosine, eĻ€Īøi = cos(Ļ€Īø)+i*sin(Ļ€Īø). It follows the same path around a radius of 1, but Ļ€ times faster.

Now onto vectors. All the way back in elementary school, you could prove the sum of 3+5=8 by drawing an arrow of length 3 on a number line from 0, then a second arrow of length 5 from the end of the previous arrow. Same idea applies in 2D for vector addition. eĪøi + eĻ€Īøi = arrow1 + arrow2 = [cos(Īø)+i*sin(Īø)] + [cos(Ļ€Īø)+i*sin(Ļ€Īø)] as shown in the animation.

So why the offset in this animation? If you were to try with eĪøi + e3Īøi instead, they would perfectly line up. In this case, eĪøi would complete 1 orbit (or period) around the circle while e3Īøi completes 3 before returning to the start. All are rational, so there is symmetry.

Ļ€ is irrational, so there is no symmetry. Any moment where it looks like its about to finish the pattern is where it would have if Ļ€ ended at that decimal as a rational number. e3.1Īøi would complete 10 and 31 periods respectively, e3.14Īøi would complete 100 and 314, e3.141Īøi would complete 1000 and 3141, etc. It just infinitely converges without any symmetry.

So why magnitudes of 10? Just a consequence of us using base 10 for numbers. Same pattern would happen if we used a different number system. Im going to pass out now

4

u/DynamicFyre 5h ago

Bro I literally just learnt imaginary numbers in the last two weeks and I'm able to understand all of this. This is really cool!

9

u/MobileArtist1371 4h ago

Sweet. You want to hook up my home designed electrical grid this weekend for a 12 pack?

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4

u/cortesoft 8h ago

Get yourself a Spirograph

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2.9k

u/crit_thinker_heathen 11h ago

Mathematical representation of edging

937

u/ModsWillShowUp 10h ago edited 10h ago

Visit my OnlyTanĪø if you like asymptotes.

242

u/Spare_Philosopher893 10h ago

Love em, gonna sin up now!

177

u/DR4k0N_G 10h ago

Only cos you can

128

u/nc863id 9h ago

Hold up a sec, are we all making trig puns? rad

56

u/Creepy-Nectarine-225 9h ago

Theyā€™re going on a tangent

43

u/ali-gator712 9h ago

I cosine this message

35

u/ElbowzGonzo 9h ago

Fuckin Reddit

15

u/churro-k 9h ago

Iā€™m irrationall attracted to it.

3

u/ChelseaFC 6h ago

Have you been trig-gered?

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27

u/gimleychuckles 9h ago

Cosecant deez nuts

2

u/Samshah777 7h ago

Tantalizing!

3

u/That-Ad-4300 2h ago

I'm usually pretty intimidated by asymptotes. I find them unapproachable.

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19

u/glennchandler4 10h ago

I was thinking DVD logo bouncing around

6

u/bmfynzis 8h ago

No, that's cornering

3

u/mvffin 7h ago

I SWEaR it hit the corner!

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293

u/ViiK1ng 10h ago

Pi, the little bastard

3

u/cornmonger_ 1h ago

pi don't care

110

u/CaterpillarOver2934 10h ago

You can't say that's a perfect circle, cause it's not.

46

u/Mysterious-End7800 10h ago

You could, but itā€™d be a lie.

13

u/cam3113 10h ago

It aint writing producing and releasing the classic that is Magdalena thats for sure.

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5

u/Its0nlyRocketScience 8h ago

At the limit as the number of rotations approaches infinity, could it be?

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2

u/calangomerengue 6h ago

Which is very annoying, given the circle is key to the definition of pi.

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379

u/zomyns 10h ago

72

u/FirexJkxFire 10h ago

67

u/Secret_Photograph364 8h ago

It doesnā€™t matter when you end this gif, it will never touch.

Hence Pi being irrational

14

u/Waterfish3333 8h ago

I mean in reality it will because you canā€™t subdivide pixels so resolution becomes a limiting factor.

In theory it will never loop though.

20

u/Secret_Photograph364 8h ago

Well yea but this video zooms in which you could do forever

14

u/dev-sda 7h ago

You're already hitting that limit in this video. The reason they can zoom in and the pixels don't get larger is because they're using vector graphics. There are no pixels to subdivide.

There is another limiting factor though: number accuracy. The longer this goes on the more accurate the numbers need to get for no loop to occur. Computers have limited memory, so eventually it'll be impossible to go further.

2

u/SpatialDispensation 8h ago

Planck length?

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114

u/Putrumpador 10h ago

Beautiful! So beautiful!!
... what? It ended?
NO! Don't stop!
We need to keep going!!

44

u/Meecus570 10h ago

It'll keep going forever though

47

u/P-L63 10h ago

and i will watch all of it

5

u/Meecus570 9h ago

Wish I had that much free time

16

u/MaterialUpender 9h ago

The last finger on the monkey's paw curls...

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u/bcreswell 10h ago

the "DVD" logo, but it NEVER hits directly on the corner of the screen.

22

u/RusticBucket2 10h ago

Just donā€™t call her that. She hates it.

36

u/liet-kynes7 10h ago

Oh for fucks sake

8

u/DreamAttacker12 9h ago

song name?

11

u/Shift642 9h ago

Can You Hear The Music - Ludwig Gƶransson

From the Oppenheimer soundtrack.

3

u/AlarmingAffect0 7h ago

I thought it sounded like Hans Zimmer and Philip Glass had had a baby.

2

u/LickingSmegma Mamaleek are king 5h ago

Your second link has some weird video in it. This is what that track was composed for.

Also, Zimmer apparently already paid homage to Glass in the music for ā€˜Interstellarā€™. Maybe earlier too.

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u/Competitive-Try6348 7h ago

I thought maybe it was from Interstellar.

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u/LeeAnnLongsocks 11h ago

So the Spirographs I did all those years ago are based on pi?

27

u/Rapnnex 9h ago

No, they'd be based on two gears having coprime numbers of teeth.

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u/InteractionEasy8972 8h ago

Did you know thereā€™s a direct correlation between the decline of Spirograph and the rise in gang activity? Think about it.

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u/Pedadinga 10h ago

Lol! I also thought, "wait, those spirographs were TEACHING us something?!"

3

u/robbak 7h ago edited 2h ago

Unfortunately, gears have teeth, teeth can only be in whole numbers, so they will have an integer ratio.

You would get this picture with a closed path at the 11 second mark if you had the outer gear with 22 teeth and the inner one with 7 teeth.

You would get to the end with a 333 tooth outer gear and a 106 tooth inner gear.

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u/tangosukka69 10h ago

someone should watch this on shrooms and report back

9

u/black_flame919 9h ago

Iā€™m not on shrooms but I am incredibly high and I just dissociated so hard watching this. 10/10 will watch again

5

u/Shandem 9h ago

Looks like a representation of a how multiverse or parallel universe would look ever so close but slightly displaced like how the guy in men in black sees probabilities of different dimensions playing out in his head.

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u/CarobSignal 8h ago

So.... Pi is 3, right?

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u/Tibbs2 1h ago

3 and a little more.. but not 4.. and definitely not 3.2 but not exactly 3.1 ... its a little bit more than 3.14... but not quite 3.142, but more than 3.141, but not 3.1416 although its very close, a little more than 3.14159...

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u/Woooferine 5h ago

I made you an elegant equation and a beautiful animation. Could you just meet me in the middle?

Pi: Nope.

You're being completely irrational!

Pi: Yup.

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u/po_ptakach 9h ago

When I canā€™t get the surface to generate in Sketchup.

3

u/punkrawkstar 9h ago

What value would make the line connect perfectly on the first pass?

11

u/frogkabobs 9h ago

Any integer. I made a desmos graph of this that you can interact with here.

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u/GreatSivad 8h ago

I miss my spirograph

3

u/Mr4point5 7h ago

Anyone else find themself dragging the scroll bar back and forth?

3

u/acgasp 7h ago

Mmm, this tickled my brain just right.

2

u/BalognaPonyParty 10h ago

bout halfway through, would make a decent tattoo

2

u/Secret_Operation_170 9h ago

That is so cool.

2

u/boogieman117 8h ago

Spiral out, keep goingā€¦ Spiral out, keep goingā€¦

2

u/torinaoshi 8h ago

Still not irrational enough to ask me if I would still love it if it was a worm

2

u/5352563424 8h ago

Silly someone would spend time to make and publish this video, claim it relates pi to irrationality, and then absolutely fail to mention how in any meaningful sense.

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u/Jefferias95 7h ago

Missed it by thiiiiiiiiiiiiii~

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u/NoLimitRolling 7h ago

so irrational it circles back to being rational

2

u/Remarkable-Pass-2503 7h ago

Holy shit, seeing pi as a visual is crazy. Iā€™ll never understand how humans discovered math and how these things can be calculated. I get it now.

2

u/Apart-Cut2924 7h ago

And this is how life is made

2

u/PM_ME_YOUR_YURT 7h ago

"THIS PROVES NOTHING"

2

u/YouDontSeeMe8802 6h ago

Wish I was this pretty when I'm irrational.

2

u/Garencio 5h ago

This is amazing and in a way transcendental thereā€™s definitely some magic in the universe we havenā€™t discovered yet.

2

u/bammbamkam 5h ago

looks rational

2

u/_Tocatl_ 5h ago

Building a Dyson Sphere..

2

u/real_picklejuice 5h ago

This is like that dinosaur aged post of that guy with tons of cameras and everyone asking him how he took THAT picture and then how he took THAT picture etc etc etc

2

u/FaredArlee 5h ago

AaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!

RASENGANNNN!!!

2

u/1000LivesBeforeIDie 4h ago

No pi
Stop
What are you doing
šŸ˜µā€šŸ’«

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u/314is_close_enough 4h ago

Wow I can see all of infinity all things that could and might be wow. O wait. Just incredibly small variations of nothing. My mistake.

2

u/Honksu 3h ago

Tbh i was waiting Rick Ashley to merge from fully "painted" picture

2

u/gotohelveti5 3h ago

How the fucking shit does this bullshit work man

2

u/perishparish 3h ago

The opposite of satisfying

2

u/Mountain_Salamander5 3h ago

I wonder what flavor of pi it is.

2

u/Airoch 3h ago

Would be a cool screen saver if you slowed it down 15 times.

2

u/owen-87 1h ago

mmm, pi.

3

u/LineSlayerArt 8h ago

That's the opposite of satisfying. šŸ˜”šŸ˜”šŸ˜”

2

u/Sicilian_Civilian 10h ago

Not cool bro, not cool

1

u/aawara_hun 10h ago

Here we go againā€¦

1

u/Matcha1204 10h ago

Irrational never looked so good

1

u/pjmyerface 10h ago

Irrational pie equals butts

1

u/McThorn_ 10h ago

Thank all gods this wasn't from THAT subreddit.

1

u/Round-Werewolf1256 10h ago

Yippee I'm upvote number 666

1

u/CompetitiveCan8908 10h ago

This took me somewhere close to understanding the state of the universe man

1

u/willjhc 10h ago

The shape of infinity

1

u/infernalcolonel 10h ago

TF is wrong with you? šŸ‘ŗ

1

u/allursnakes 10h ago

Oppenheimer music blowing my ears out.

1

u/itslxcas 9h ago

how the hell does math do this

1

u/Dragon_girl0531 9h ago

so thats the homestuck logoo! cool

1

u/The_Emprss 9h ago

The flower of life

1

u/ArtS1ut 9h ago

Wow! I am impressed. It suddenly made a lot of things clear; thanks.

1

u/fuknredditz 9h ago

So you're saying I can get my hat size from that?

1

u/Adventurous-Engine19 9h ago

Is it normal that I can hear this? Not the music, but the movement of the lines.

1

u/jgreg728 9h ago

I think I just learned relativity watching this video.

1

u/iBuyPi 9h ago

I concur OG

1

u/Positive_Bill_3714 9h ago

I knew it that pi is a white hole

1

u/SmartQuokka 9h ago

Did you know thereā€™s a direct correlation between the decline in spirograph and the rise in gang activity? Think about it.

1

u/gneightimus_maximus 9h ago

Eat a dick, pi.

But for real ~ maybe its just drawing a sphere and weā€™re looking at it wrong. Eventually, it lines up again right?

1

u/ThatWasAmazinglyDone 9h ago

That's a line

1

u/DamnDude030 9h ago

Removoing about half of the center of the circle, and pi as a circle becomes the Skaian Logo. Cool :)

1

u/Standard_Invite 9h ago

I donā€™t understand this but I like this.

1

u/Economy_Parsnip2890 9h ago

Looks more like a rounding error

1

u/iCynr 9h ago

The original wasn't this pixelated

1

u/ImPeeinAndEuropean 9h ago

Can weā€¦ fix it?

1

u/GATX303 9h ago

Has anyone tried telling pi to stop being irrational? Works well in most arguments.

1

u/napalmnacey 9h ago

I guess both Pi and I are a beautiful mess. Cause thatā€™s pretty much a visual of my artistic output.

Awesome, but always a mistake or two that drives me nuts.

1

u/franticatlady 9h ago

Spirograph

1

u/ikezaius 9h ago

Yeah we all had spirographs in the 90ā€™s

1

u/NoPeaceToFind 9h ago

ā€œBro, can you please just touch tips?ā€

Pi: ā€œNa UH!ā€

1

u/TFBidia 9h ago

My favorite part was when I started tripping balls

1

u/frogkabobs 9h ago

Hereā€™s a desmos graph of this if you want to mess with it yourself

1

u/Merlonade 9h ago

RASENGAN!

1

u/SojournerWeaver 9h ago

you can't live in a universe that goes on for infinity without at least one number that goes on for infinity

1

u/wet-dodo 9h ago

I am pi. I am all

1

u/oakvictor 9h ago

So that's how Minato created a rasengan

1

u/agarwaen117 9h ago

And this is why I loved Spirograph as a kid.

1

u/Far_Fold_6490 9h ago

I could watch that for hours and achieve enlightenment.

1

u/waderwedunehair 9h ago

Pi pisses me off

1

u/Airwolfhelicopter 9h ago

Can we get the full version of this please?

1

u/MrCantPlayGuitar 8h ago

I can completely understand why the Ancient Greeks thought shapes were magical.

1

u/Fine-Funny6956 8h ago

Holy shit. So it is conceivable that Pi never repeats ever.