Humble Pi: When Math Goes Wrong in the Real World

by Matt Parker

Thankfully, if there’s one thing a pope can do, it’s convince a lot of people to change their behavior for seemingly arbitrary reasons.

This can lead to real problems. In 2012 the State Office of Education in Utah miscalculated its budget to the tune of $25 million because of what State Superintendent Larry Shumway called “a faulty reference” in a spreadsheet.

If you want some movement, one of the three needs to be removed. (In my experience: parents.)

The prevalence of military examples of math going wrong is not because the armed forces are particularly bad at mathematics. It’s partly because the military is big on research and development, so they are at the bleeding edge of what can be done, which tends to invite mistakes. Moreover, they have some level of public obligation to report on things that go wrong.

Or, in my case, patience, a coin, a lot of free time, and the kind of obsessive personality that keeps you sitting in a room flipping a coin by yourself, despite the desperate pleas of your friends and family to stop.

I cling to the theory that at least the threat of public embarrassment will stop people from endorsing patently implausible claims. Part of me cannot be convinced that anyone arguing for this Obamacare meme is not a troll and in it for the lulz.

In general, reusing code without retesting can cause all sorts of problems.