Whenever I find a solution that works better than whatever I’m already using, I find it very difficult to go back. Such is the case with my choice of circle constant. There was a time when I viewed pi—the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter—as fundamental. However, since reading the tau manifesto, I have come to see pi as flawed and ugly.
To understand why, I highly recommend reading Michael Hartl’s manifesto, and/or watching some of his video presentations, such as this one:
Why is pi so ugly? It only has half of the value it should have. Once you make that realization, pi—and all of its associated paraphernalia—becomes almost embarrassing. The most celebrated constant in mathematics is wrong!
Hartl proposes tau, τ, defined as 2π (6.283185…) as the more appropriate circle constant. Tau is the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its radius, which makes a lot more sense. Radians expressed in terms of tau are completely intuitive, for instance.
If I have one reservation, it’s that the Greek letter tau, τ, is sometimes a difficult to read in formulae. For example:
is clear, while:
looks a lot like:
What do you think?
