Pi is wrong; long live Tau!

[Shai Hulud]

What does that mean?

It means exactly what he said. 

Could you explain it in a way that makes sense?

See edit.

I did:)

I understand better.  It's not so much aesthetic as it is practical, to prevent human error when dealing with two signs instead of one.  Is that the gist?

[Golden Applesauce]

this is pretty much an aesthetic choice, right? does using tau instead of pi change any calculations?

Reduced complexity in equations. Less chances of error.

For instance the Schrodingers wave equation for the hydrogen atom in its general form is mostly symbols standing in for more complex elements and it is still fifteen or so elements long.

I've been guilty of dropping factors all over quantum and probability homeworks/tests. 1/sq(2pi) tends to get rewritten as 1/sq(pi) a lot when I do it.

[Freeky]

What does that mean?

It means exactly what he said. 

Could you explain it in a way that makes sense?

See edit.

I did:)

I understand better.  It's not so much aesthetic as it is practical, to prevent human error when dealing with two signs instead of one.  Is that the gist?

Yah.

[Shai Hulud]

Well, I like it.  Makes sense to me.

I'm kind of surprisxsed tau doesn't already stand for something, though.  I'd have figured the entire greek alphabet had been taken by now.

[Rumckle]

It stands for various things, in fact pretty much every letter has more than one meaning depending on the context (not to mention differences between capital and lower case). Pi also has a few meanings (though less than tau and also times when pi does stand for something it is less likely to be in an equation that requires 3.14 or 2*3.14).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_letters_used_in_mathematics,_science,_and_engineering#.CE.A4.CF.84_.28Tau.29

[LMNO]

So, for practical purposes, tau = 6.28?

[Prelate Diogenes Shandor]

pi is the area constant.

(pi)(r)^2

And area is a hell of a lot more relevant than circumfrence!