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Jeff B. | profile | all galleries >> Northwest Bucket List >> Oregon >> Wrong Value of Pi tree view | thumbnails | slideshow

Wrong Value of Pi

Portland, OR

At the Washington Park Max station, there are various significant facts engraved on the wall. Among those is the value pf Pi. Unfortunately, it is wrong from the second line on. A typo on paper is one thing, but if it's engraved in granite.....

The number block shown is supposed to be a window into a larger block of digits of pi, 100 characters wide. Every 10 digits the number is jumping ahead 90 digits. But because of the "3" leading on the first line, and the text being 12 characters wide, there is an alignment problem. This is a common software programmer error. The second line is showing 82148 08651 44 but it should be 82148 08651 32. Notice the last two positions are wrong. It already started jumping ahead another 90 positions, 44 / 288 10975 7245, but that next line should be 44 / 288 10975 6659, and so the wrong digits keep creeping in from the left side, two positions at a time. This is a pretty fantastic blunder!
Wrong Value of Pi
Wrong Value of Pi
Wrong Value of Pi
Wrong Value of Pi
Wrong Value of Pi
Wrong Value of Pi