• PM_Your_Nudes_Please@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    In astronomy, pi=1 or 10, depending on whether you’re trying to over or under estimate something. Because when you’re trying to estimate distances measured in millions of light years, the difference between 3 and 10 is just one or two orders of magnitude on a small number. It’s pretty common for astronomers to do napkin math by rounding every single number to the nearest zero. 91k becomes 100k for instance. Because the napkin math estimations are just trying to gauge whether some celestial event or object is a thousand light years away, ten thousand, a hundred thousand, etc… And pi becomes 10, because that’s the nearest round number.

    • LazerFX@sh.itjust.works
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      2 months ago

      Fermi Estimation. Where you’re dealing with something so big, you’re just interested in the magnitude.