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Decimal Pattern
Take the number pi = 3.14159265358979323846264338.... Compute integer multiples of pi . Then truncate the integer so that you only have the decimal part remaining. Graph the decimal part versus its position in the sequence. What do you see? What would be a logical explanation?
| multiples of pi |
approximation |
truncation |
| pi |
3.141592653 |
0.141592653 |
| 2*pi |
6.283185306 |
0.283185306 |
| 3*pi |
9.424777959 |
0.424777959 |
| 4*pi |
12.56637061 |
0.566370612 |
| 5*pi |
15.70796327 |
0.707963265 |
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Extensions |
If you do the same thing with any other decimal number instead of pi, would the observation still be true? Why?
 Submit your idea for an investigation to InterMath.
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