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The Quest for the Holy Value

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Visit this site: http://www.pvv.unit.no/~eddie/pi/
Author:Kjetil Valstadsve
Description: Finding the correct value of pi. The likelihood of any random two integers having 1 as their greatest common divisor (no factors in common), has been proved to be 6 divided by pi squared - the numbers are prime in relation to each other. According to SICP the theorem was put forward by Cesaro and proved by Knuth. Technically, then, you can estimate pi by calculating the common factors of a large number of pairs of integers, finding the likelihood of the pairs having this no-common-factors property, and then extracting pi from the formula. You are asked to contribute two random integers. (The author admits that this is not, however, a realistic scheme.)
Levels: High School (9-12), College
Languages: English
Resource Types: Problems/Puzzles, Recreations, Web Interactive/Java
Math Topics: Pi, Probability

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