back

by pella·2y ago·view on hn ↗
Xkcd Coordinate Precision: https://xkcd.com/2170/

NASA: pi 15 digits

"For JPL's highest accuracy calculations, which are for interplanetary navigation, we use 3.141592653589793. Let's look at this a little more closely to understand why we don't use more decimal places."

"Let's go to the largest size there is: the known universe. The radius of the universe is about 46 billion light years. Now let me ask (and answer!) a different question: How many digits of pi would we need to calculate the circumference of a circle with a radius of 46 billion light years to an accuracy equal to the diameter of a hydrogen atom, the simplest atom? It turns out that 37 decimal places (38 digits, including the number 3 to the left of the decimal point) would be quite sufficient. "

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/edu/news/2016/3/16/how-many-decimal...