Bigger Strike Zone

[Bluefoot]

Originally Posted by tcblue13

pi is a constant 3.14

The approximated value of pi = 3.14159265358979...

But, yes, it is constant. (Maybe we should change it to the ratio of a pear's perimeter to its diameter!)

(BTW, I am a math teacher)

[Dakota]

Originally Posted by Bluefoot

(BTW, I am a math teacher)

Hmmm... I have my doubts. If you were really a math teacher, you would know that the approximate value of pi is 3.141592653589793238462643383279502884197169399375 10582097494459230781640628620899862803482534211706 79821480865132823066470938446095505822317253594081 28481117450284102701938521105559644622948954930381 96442881097566593344612847564823378678316527120190 91456485669234603486104543266482133936072602491412 73724587006606315588174881520920962829254091715364 36789259036001133053054882046652138414695194151160 94330572703657595919530921861173819326117931051185 48074462379962749567351885752724891227938183011949

Unless, of course, you lived in Indiana in the late 1800's.

[Chess Ref]

I was under the belief that pie is continuing to grow. heard a story about a supercomputer at Cal that is getting new digits. It just runs the computations all the time........

[Dakota]

Originally Posted by Chess Ref

I was under the belief that pie is continuing to grow. heard a story about a supercomputer at Cal that is getting new digits. It just runs the computations all the time........

Actually, it is an irrational number. Not trying to tempt Bluefoot into giving us a math lesson, but what this means, in effect, is that we can never know the value of pi exactly. No matter how many digits are used, it is still an approximation.

So, pi is not growing, but the number of digits that we know keep growing. Don't know if the story about the supercomputer at Cal is true or not... if it is, Cal has too much money.

[Bluefoot]

That is an excellent explanation of an irrational number! It is a number with a decimal that never ends, and never becomes a repeating sequence of digits. (most specifically, it's one that can't be represented by writing the number as A/B, where A and B are both integers)

BTW, your 126th digit past the decimal is incorrect. It should be a 7.(HA!)

Pi is "growing" at the approximate rate that an umpire's strike zone does, when he loses his patience behind the plate and depserately wants the game to end.

[CecilOne]

Originally Posted by Chess Ref

I was under the belief that pie is continuing to grow. heard a story about a supercomputer at Cal that is getting new digits. It just runs the computations all the time........

Maybe we could get it to do something useful, like comparing all our rule books, or counting the myths that are posted, or the number of times someone says HTBT.

[tcblue13]

Originally Posted by Chess Ref

I was under the belief that pie is continuing to grow. heard a story about a supercomputer at Cal that is getting new digits. It just runs the computations all the time........

Mr. Spock actually used the value of pi to the last digit to confound a super computer in the original series "Star Trek"

He should have been an umpire

[Bluefoot]

Originally Posted by tcblue13

Mr. Spock actually used the value of pi to the last digit to confound a super computer in the original series "Star Trek"

He should have been an umpire

A video clip of this has actually been used in math classes that I've been in.

BTW, who is "Captain Slog" that Kirk talks to at the begining of each episode?

I ain't no trekkie.

[Dakota]

Originally Posted by Bluefoot

I ain't no trekkie.

Talk about useless redundancy.

[IamMatt]

Hope you don't mind my chiming in, but is there some reason that officials are told to do something at clinics that contradicts their written rules?

Maybe the rule sets are different for the sanctioning bodies you are referring to and if so, I apologize for my ignorance, but if, for example, the ASA rules define the strike zone as "...that space over any part of home plate.." what is the basis for an instructor to teach something contradictory?

[CecilOne]

I decided to consciously use a wider strike zone on Friday because it was a JV game. Bad day to pick, because neither pitcher was anywhere near consistent and I ended up with no partner. So, after a couple innings I gave up. Too many other weird things happening to concentrate on anything new. Probably can't try again until Wed, because of the teams involved on Mon & Tue.

[SC Ump]

About two years ago, I called an "outside strike" and the catcher gave me an exasperated look as the defensive coach yelled at me, "What do you mean strike? We're throwing an intentional walk." Oh well.

The next pitch was at about the same place. The batter hit it for a double.

[IRISHMAFIA]

Originally Posted by SC Ump

About two years ago, I called an "outside strike" and the catcher gave me an exasperated look as the defensive coach yelled at me, "What do you mean strike? We're throwing an intentional walk." Oh well.

Then why was the catcher even down in a crouch?

[IRISHMAFIA]

Originally Posted by CecilOne

I decided to consciously use a wider strike zone on Friday because it was a JV game. Bad day to pick, because neither pitcher was anywhere near consistent and I ended up with no partner. So, after a couple innings I gave up. Too many other weird things happening to concentrate on anything new. Probably can't try again until Wed, because of the teams involved on Mon & Tue.

Let me understand this. You had two lousy pitchers so you didn't use a wider strike zone?

[greymule]

Hmmm... I have my doubts. If you were really a math teacher, you would know that the approximate value of pi is 3.141592653589793238462643383279502884197169399375 10582097494459230781640628620899862803482534211706 79821480865132823066470938446095505822317253594081 28481117450284102701938521105559644622948954930381 96442881097566593344612847564823378678316527120190 91456485669234603486104543266482133936072602491412 73724587006606315588174881520920962829254091715364 36789259036001133053054882046652138414695194151160 94330572703657595919530921861173819326117931051185 48074462379962749567351885752724891227938183011949

A math professor at Princeton knows pi out to 1,000 places. So does his wife, who is also a math professor. In a strange coincidence, their son is gifted at math and got the highest scores in the country on the standardized tests his school administered.

I will now open myself up to criticism and admit that my zone is somewhat subjective and varies according to the level of play and even the situation. For example, last night a 14u player took a pitch a little high, fouled a pitch in the zone, took another pitch high, lined foul a pitch in the zone, and then checked her swing on a curve a few inches outside. Ball 3.

But I admit that if she had stood with the bat on her shoulder and watched strike 1 and strike 2 down the middle and then that curve a few inches outside, it would have been strike 3.

MLB, pitcher up. Stands like a statue with his bat on his shoulder for three pitches, two right down the pipe, the third one waist high and two inches outside. Is there an umpire who would not call that pitch strike 3?

Ted Williams up. Lines two balls foul and then shrugs off a waist-high pitch two inches outside. Is there an umpire who would call that pitch strike 3?

OK. Have at me.