Madan wrote: >There are some areas in maths where fractions are >useful >for example >* its better to express pi as 22/7 instead of 3.14, >since 22/7 is more precise.
Neither is precise. 22/7 is 3.1429 (or, to be really precise, 3.142857, with the last 6 digits recurring), whereas pi is 3.1416. So, yes, 22/7 is marginally closer than 3.14. One more decimal place (3.142) and you're certainly close enough for government work. >* volume of pyramid = 1/3 * base-area * height, if we >use 0.33, then we may not get the correct volume. That shouldn't, however, be expressed as a fraction. The better formula is (base-area*height)/3. In that case, we have an integer divisor, rather than a fractional multiplier. Bill Potts, CMS Roseville, CA http://metric1.org [SI Navigator]
