Tau

Everyone always talks about Pi. It occers almost everywhere. Beyond basic circle formulas, pi appears in Euler’s equation, physics, and is used for radians. One of what I think it the weirdest location to find pi is that if you use the pattern below:

1 x 2 = 2

2 x 3 = 6

6 x 4 = 24

24 x 5 = {…]

And then plot the points in the (x, y) form so that the result is y and the number multiplier by is x, (Ex: (2, 2); (3, 6); (4, 34) …), then the equation for this curve is:

Somehow pi still appears. Pi in the most basic form is half the circumference of a circle who has a radius of 1.

This constant reaches beyond simple equations and is even a cultural phenomenon. Every year, on either March 14th or July 22 depending on if you approximate pi to 3.14 or 22/7, people around the world celebrate “Pi Day.“ Even if you have never reached a high-level math class, you probably know what pi is.

But the title of this article is Tau. For those who don’t know, tau is 2pi. That;’s great and all, but why does a specific multiple of pi have its own greek letter? Let me make the argument to you why tau should instead be celebrated instead of pi.

The idea of Tau comes hand in hand with that of pi. It is the ratio of the circle’s circumference to its diameter. Beccause there is no half relationship, tau is a lost easier to use in certain coulculatrions. The best example of this is radians. Instead of weird fractions, angles are represented by tau divided by what fraction of the circle they are. See the diagram below:

It’s so much easier to see that a full circle is just Tau and 180 degrees is 1/2 tau. Not only is tau useful in radians, 2pi occers in many equations. For example, the period of a pendulum:

There are countless more equations that use two pi as well. Becuase of this, I believe that tau should be more accepted by the mathematical commuity and the general public. It makes radians easier along with saving time when writing out long equations, something that mathematicians love to do.