Can you have a perfect circle?

[smeariestbat]

nah I'm talking about a circle.. I'#m being a bit of a nob though.. coz what I'm saying is that in the 3 dimension that we live in, you cant technically draw anything on a perfectly flat plane. Because spacetime bends under gravity.. so nothing is truly flat.. but how about a dancing banana ?

 

[DavidinSouthampton]

How do we know that nobody has ever drawn a perfect circle? On the same basis that if you give enough monkeys enough typewriters, one of them will eventually type the Works of Shakespeare, somewhere the imperfections in the paper or whatever medium the circle is being drawn or printed on might have made up for the spacetime bending under gravity.

And that banana will never draw anything anywhere near perfect unless he stops dancing.

 

[GingerBeerMan]

This thread has gone way over my head. Maybe a link to something I can read to explain it?

 

[stripeyshark]

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=f...AQ&biw=1024&bih=672#biv=i|3;d|XIehV_uJX9JYiM:

 

[Questions]

Talking of spheres....... The earth is a smoother one than a billiards ball.

 

[Kalimantan Gull]

Talking of spheres....... The earth is a smoother one than a billiards ball.

Now if that's true, its the most interesting thing I've read on NSC in a very long time.

 

[johnhammond]

Talking of spheres....... The earth is a smoother one than a billiards ball.

The earth is smoother than a billiards ball, but it's not a sphere...

 

[m20gull]

Yes. It's a mathematical construct. The sets of points equidistant from a single point in 2 dimensions.
Is there a physical manifestation? Presumably not.

 

[Questions]

The earth is smoother than a billiards ball, but it's not a sphere...

Ok.....roundish sort of thing then.

 

[Dub-67]

Yes. It's a mathematical construct. The sets of points equidistant from a single point in 2 dimensions.
Is there a physical manifestation? Presumably not.

At the risk of being pedantic, I think the real problem is with the wording of the original question;

Can you have a perfect circle?

Yes it is a mathemtaical construct... but mathematical constructs dont 'exist' in reality.. they are ideas.. but lets not get into Plato thats bound to pisseveryone off.
Can you draw a perfect circle ? No
Can you have one ? what ? in a fight ? yeah I can have one.

 

[spongy]

Now if that's true, its the most interesting thing I've read on NSC in a very long time.

It is true, saw that on QI. If a billiard ball was scaled up to the size of the earth, the earth would be rounder.

The most spherical shape in the known universe is a neutron star, with a 15 mile diameter, the highest "mountain" would be around 5mm high.

 

[spongy]

The earth is smoother than a billiards ball, but it's not a sphere...

I've got the word "oblate spheroid" in my head to describe the shape of the earth. Am I right?

 

[VICENTE]

World Freehand Circle Drawing Champion - YouTube

 

[johnhammond]

I've got the word "oblate spheroid" in my head to describe the shape of the earth. Am I right?

Yup, oblate spheroid is right the definition.

 

[TrickyOne]

My circle of trust is perfik!

 

[Freddie Goodwin.]

Just a word of warning to those posting on here.

Don't upset circles because some are said to be vicious.

 

[Stewart]

I wrote a blog about this I'm so into it.

Andrew Stewart

 

[Shropshire Seagull]

pi is proven to be an irrational (even transcendent) number, so there is no end, no repetition. Calculating digits of pi is more a kind of benchmark for supercomputers and a prestige thingy.

Should you want to do this yourself, just calculate 4*(1 - 1/3 + 1/5 - 1/7 + 1/9 - 1/11 + ...). This is pi, and if that isn't perfect, I don't know what perfect is

Pi is more easily perfectly represented as 22 divided by 7

 

[Stoo82]

The earth is smoother than a billiards ball, but it's not a sphere...

No but this is...

 

[Shropshire Seagull]

Only if the piston itself is perfectly circular, shirley?

Oh how ridiculous, a circle is only 2-dimensional, a piston is 3-dimensional and should be called a cylinder.
Whoa, hang on, that can't be right as a piston fits into a cylinder ....
So what's the correct name to give the shape of a piston then?