[The] United States’ population on Tuesday hit 314,159,265, according to the Census Bureau’s population clock. As all math geeks know, that’s pi times 10 to the eighth, rounded to the nearest whole number...Found at Slate.
The census bureau, bless its heart, saw fit to put out a brief news release marking the occasion. It reported that we reached the milestone shortly after 2:29 p.m. eastern today. The timing is not precise, since the population clock is an estimate rather than an exact count. (It assumes one birth every eight seconds, one death every 14 seconds, and one net migrant every 46 seconds.) But pi is an irrational number anyway, so who cares.
15 August 2012
U.S. population = 314.159 million
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Math geeks would take the care to clarify their terminology when they mean 10^8 not 10^(1/8).
ReplyDeleteThat is a lot of American Pi(e)
ReplyDelete"Milliion"? Is the extra "i" an intentional thing that I'm not getting? (Note: I'm not a math geek.)
ReplyDeleteIt was a test to see who could find the typo. You win two internets.
DeleteFixed. tx.
When the population passes this point back on its way down again, I suspect no-one will be paying attention.
ReplyDeleteWell, there's *got* to be math geeks in the Bureau of counting people and statistics! The government doesn't kill everything! :D (just ... mostly. Like a vampire. :P )
ReplyDelete