[Squeakland] Discovering Pi in Squeak

[Bert Freudenberg]

On May 30, 2007, at 12:04 , subbukk wrote:

> On Wednesday 30 May 2007 1:54 pm, Bert Freudenberg wrote:
>> Using "forward by, turn by" you can draw a circle of known
>> circumference, similar to how kids can measure the circumference of a
>> large circle in the sand by counting footsteps. Measuring the
>> diameter is easy - take the ratio and you're done.
>> So "turn by 120" three times makes your "three stick" version. You
>> can go up to 360 sticks by using 1 degree turns ...
>
> I ruled this out because the 'turn' method uses Pi. To discover Pi,  
> we cannot
> use Pi. That would be a circular argument.

Not quite. If you would do this with an actual turtle robot, you  
certainly would accept the approach, wouldn't you? Why would you  
dismiss the simulation of that robot?

- Bert -