FAQs
Whether it's sending spacecraft to other planets, driving rovers on Mars, finding out what planets are made of or how deep alien oceans are, pi takes us far at NASA.
What does NASA use for pi? ›
For most calculations, NASA uses 15 digits: 3.141592653589793. Is that enough?
What is the pi in the sky NASA challenge? ›
The "Pi in the Sky" math challenge gives students a chance to take part in recent discoveries and upcoming celestial events, all while using math and pi just like NASA scientists and engineers.
Do rocket scientists use pi? ›
NASA's deep space network (DSN) relies on pi for communication with distant spacecraft like Lucy, OSIRIS-REx/APEX and Juno.
What are 5 ways pi is used on a daily basis? ›
5 Ways Engineers Use Pi
- To talk to satellites.
- To drive electric motors.
- To size up vessels at refineries.
- To measure a roll of paper.
- To determine the capacity hot water storage tanks and heaters.
What are ways to use pi? ›
It is used to calculate the circumference and area of a circle, as well as the volume and surface area of spheres, cones, and cylinders. Trigonometry: Pi is also used in trigonometry, which is the branch of mathematics that deals with the relationships between the sides and angles of triangles.
Why does NASA use 15 digits of pi? ›
It turns out, though, that the amount needed to get to high precision is a significantly smaller number of digits than you might think. NASA uses 15 decimal places and by counting the 3, you have a total of 16 digits. And that is more than enough.
What is the 100 trillionth digit of pi? ›
The 100-trillionth decimal place of π (pi) is 0. A few months ago, on an average Tuesday morning in March, I sat down with my coffee to check on the program that had been running a calculation from my home office for 157 days.
How many places of pi does NASA use? ›
NASA only uses around 15 digits of pi in its calculations for sending rockets into space. To get an atom-precise measurement of the universe, you would only need around 40.
Why is pi so beautiful? ›
The beauty of pi, in part, is that it puts infinity within reach. Even young children get this. The digits of pi never end and never show a pattern. They go on forever, seemingly at random—except that they can't possibly be random, because they embody the order inherent in a perfect circle.
NASA stands for National Aeronautics and Space Administration. NASA was started on October 1, 1958, as a part of the United States government. NASA is in charge of U.S. science and technology that has to do with airplanes or space.
Why is pi a mystery? ›
The decimal values of pi have no end and never repeat. People have been studying the number pi for thousands of years. You might therefore expect that almost everything is already known about it. But this is far from the case: the circle still holds many mysteries.
Does NASA use Raspberry pi? ›
Scientists have revealed how data from a NASA telescope was secured thanks to creative thinking and a batch of Raspberry Pi computers.
What is 15 digits of pi? ›
The first 15 digits of the never-ending number are: 3.14159265358979. Celebrants around the world honor the day in a myriad of wacky ways, including using actual pies to try to calculate the number Pi.
What are 3 important facts about pi? ›
Here are five fascinating facts about the wonderful natural constant that we know as π, but which we can never, ever write down in numbers.
- Pi was estimated independently in China around 400 AD. ...
- Pi is irrational. ...
- Pi is transcendental. ...
- Any numerical expression for Pi is infinite.
What are three things about pi? ›
Interestingly, legendary mathematician Albert Einstein's birth anniversary falls on Pi day. Pi is a part of Egyptian mythology. It is being said that the Pyramids of Giza are built with the principles of Pi. The value of the Pi was first calculated by Archimedes.