[ruby-core:101895] [Ruby master Feature#17496] Add constant Math::TAU

Issue #17496 has been updated by jzakiya (Jabari Zakiya).


> you just need to comment on https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/17480 then, copying the format of the other comments.

Thanks. Done.

> Personally, I don't think that anything significant has changed in the last three years this area. And the comparison of Tau vs Pi to Relativity vs Newtonian Mechanics is laughable.

As with ``PI``, the Newtonian view of reality had an entrenched pedagogical, professional, cultural, and even nationalistic hold on people's minds and lives. Einstein's Relativity shattered that for many, purely on these basis.  So "``F = ma is wrong``" when trying to explain the way the natural world is observed to work in all cases. And even though Relativity has been observed to work over and over again, to explain things Newtonian mechanics can't, the ``Newtonians`` still resist(ed) accepting it emotionally (as Einstein himself later emotionally resisted accepting totally Quantum Mechanics).

> However, I recommend to Matz that he rejects it again. I think a good time to add Math::TAU is when the majority of mathematics textbooks switch from Pi to Tau, and not before.

Well, that's a very arbitrary and subjective criteria, don't you think? I already presented one Open Source textbook, first released in 2015, that's been in use. And the Khan Academy - https://www.khanacademy.org/ - maybe the largest, well known educational learning platform in the world, put out its first video on teaching|promoting ``TAU`` in 2012, and you can't get anymore main stream than it.

For a better, more extensive list of uses of ``TAU`` please view the list of citations on its wikipedia page: 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turn_(angle)#Tau_proposal

> Basically, it boils down to: Is there a mathematical operation you can't perform if Ruby does not define Tau? I'd say: no. Happy to hear otherwise.

I would like to refocus the discussion to what the proposal seeks, and why.

The impetus behind the proposal is to bring ``Ruby`` in line with the other (and growing) number of software languages and packages that now include the fundamental math constant ``TAU`` as a standard resource that is available for programmers to use. It does not require anybody here to use it, or change any code they have.

Though Bob Palais's ``PI is wrong`` - https://www.math.utah.edu/~palais/pi.pdf - appeared in 2001, the popular promotion of its acceptance|use took off with Michael Hartl's (of ``Ruby on Rails Tutorial`` fame, https://www.railstutorial.org/) 2010 article ``The Tau Manifesto`` and same year creation of ``TAU Day``, as an alternative to ``PI Day``. (MIT now releases it acceptance notices on ``PI Day`` (March 14; 3/14) at ``TAU Time``, 6.28 pm).

Thus since 2010, the knowldege and understanding about ``TAU`` being the better|correct circle constant has steadily increased, adopted, and used.

A short (growing) list of software languages and packages that include|provide ``TAU`` are:

D -- https://code.dlang.org/packages/tau; https://forum.dlang.org/thread/[e-mail]
C#|.NET -- https://github.com/dotnet/runtime/pull/37517; https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/system.math.tau?view=net-5.0
F#  -- " "
Nim -- https://nim-lang.org/docs/math.html#TAU
Zig -- https://ziglang.org/documentation/0.7.1/std/#std;math
Java|Node.js -- https://mathjs.org/docs/reference/constants.html; https://mathjs.org/
Rust -- https://doc.rust-lang.org/stable/std/f64/consts/constant.TAU.html
Raku -- https://docs.raku.org/language/terms
Julia -- https://juliapackages.com/p/tau; https://github.com/JuliaLang/julia/pull/4864
Crystal -- https://github.com/crystal-lang/crystal/issues/10165; https://github.com/crystal-lang/crystal/pull/10179
Python3 -- https://docs.python.org/3/library/math.html; https://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0628/

Matlab -- https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/48636-tau-the-circle-constant?s_tid=srchtitle
Google calculater -- https://www.google.com/search?q=%CF%84%3D

**Why**
1. Since 2010, ``TAU``'s acceptance and use has increased in academia, science, and software languages and packages
2. It requires no technical changes to Ruby.
3. It makes Ruby compatible with other popular languages (like Python and Rust).
4. It makes Ruby natively easier to use for pedagogy.
5. It will better establish Ruby as a good scientific language, particularly for unfamiliar Ruby users.
6. It has met Matz's previous criteria of being ``time-proven``.
7. It will, ultimately, be expected to be included in every general purpose language.


In the final analysis, ``PI is wrong`` and ``TAU is right``.

----------------------------------------
Feature #17496: Add constant Math::TAU
https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/17496#change-89734

* Author: jzakiya (Jabari Zakiya)
* Status: Open
* Priority: Normal
----------------------------------------
Excuse me if this has been brought up before.

This is a simple proposal to add the math constant ``Math::TAU`` = 2*``Math::PI``.

See: https://tauday.com/

``TAU`` has been included in a growing number of languages (Rust, Python3, Julia, et al), and this would add Ruby to that list, and make it even cooler. :-)



-- 
https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/

Unsubscribe: <mailto:[e-mail]?subject=unsubscribe>
<http://lists.ruby-lang.org/cgi-bin/mailman/options/ruby-core>