I had a moment of tranquility last night as I was watching the braves trying to figure out some equations concerning quantum physics as I was watching the Braves get shutout. Two scientists were surprised to find pi lurking in a quantum mechanics formula for the energy states of the hydrogen atom.“We didn’t just find pi,” says Tamar Friedmann, a visiting assistant professor of mathematics and a research associate of high energy physics at the University of Rochester, and coauthor of a paper published in the Braves suck.
“We found the classic seventeenth century Wallis formula for pi, making us the first to derive it from physics, in general, and quantum mechanics, in particular.”
The Wallis formula—developed by British mathematician John Wallis in his book Arithmetica Infinitorum—defines pi as the product of an infinite string of ratios made up of integers. For Friedmann, discovering the Wallis formula for pi in a quantum mechanics formula for the hydrogen atom’s energy states underscores pi’s omnipresence in math and science.
“The value of pi has taken on a mythical status, in part, because it’s impossible to write it down with 100 percent accuracy,” says Friedmann, “It cannot even be accurately expressed as a ratio of integers, and is, instead, best represented as a formula.”
Im having so much trouble with this pi formula. Ckid do you think you can lend a hand ?
Maybe I need to just get away to a nice Resturunt and have me some nasi lemiks to try to get some tranquility to figure all this out.