----- Original Message ---- From: Henry Baker <hbaker1@pipeline.com> To: Dan Asimov <dasimov@earthlink.net>; math-fun <math-fun@mailman.xmission.com> Sent: Thursday, May 1, 2008 11:09:40 AM Subject: Re: [math-fun] The value of PI Even more bizarre, IMHO, is the fact that in the volume formula for n dimensions, it isn't pi itself, but sqrt(pi), that is important. I don't think that the Greeks figured that part out. If you go through all the formulae in a large book -- e.g., Stegun, et al -- I think that "2pi" shows up more often than "pi". Sooner or later, we're bound to run up against a civilization that chose differently which to commemorate with a name. ------------------------------ But the sqrt(pi) is never explicit. The volume is (n/2)! pi^(n/2) R^n, and since (-1/2)! = sqrt(pi), only integer powers of pi appear. Gene ____________________________________________________________________________________ Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile. Try it now. http://mobile.yahoo.com/;_ylt=Ahu06i62sR8HDtDypao8Wcj9tAcJ