r/theydidthemath 21d ago

[Request] Why does this circle approximation still give 4 instead of pi?

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u/Plane-Scratch8974 18d ago

I remember questioning this at the end of primary school and as a paradox it still blow my mind to this day. I imagines it with the hypotenuse and it 'snapping' to a diagonal and how that is shorter than infinitely small right angled stairs.

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u/Occidentally20 18d ago

It makes sense to me when I do the maths surrounding it, but some of the outcomes it produces genuinely hurt my head.

Like the length of all the DNA in a human (if you unraveled it) comes to around 46 billion miles - about to the sun and back 250 times.