Mathematics lovers unite so that Rover calculates Pi on the Moon
Later this year, a small rover will perform an unusual lunar task
Astrobotic Cuberover should land on the moon at the end of 2025.
While crossing the surface of the Moon after a launch later this year, Cuberover the size of an Astrobotic shoe box will have downtime: an additional calculation power that will not always be used. And thanks to an extremely successful crowdfunding campaign, he will use this free time for a centuries -old cheesis – calculating the PI value.
When they realized that Cuberover would not need all his computer time, the engineers of the private company SpaceFlight Astrobotic sent an email by email, a mathematics and stand-up actor, asking him if he could think of good utility. Given its story to calculate the PI in a creative and curious way on its channel, Parker did not have to think long. “I don’t think I even got to the bottom of the email,” said Parker. His first thought was “Pi on the Moon”; His second thought was “Is it a scam?”
After determining that the email was legitimate and responded in a hurry, Parker got to work. He wanted to be the first to calculate PI on the moon, but he had to be more significant than using the rover like any old computer. Instead, its proposed code would incorporate random numbers generated by the lunar data that the rover will collect to calculate increasingly precise values of Pi. There are many ways to calculate PI (π) with random numbers, and Parker always chooses between the options; For example, the rover can use random numbers to signify the coordinates inside a 2 × 2 square and calculate the proportion of points that are found in a circle with a radius of 1 which is incorporated into this square. This number will approach π / 4: the area of the unitary circle divided by the square of the square. Parker could also use the proportion of three -dimensional random points that land in a unitary sphere. Another option uses the formula for the surface of a section of a sphere, which is particularly attractive because it involves drawing a random path that looks a lot like the path that a rover could take the surface of the moon.
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Astrobotic officials were ready to make the project without making a profit, but projected significant engineering costs to integrate the code into the rover and ensure that it does not interfere with the main directive of the mission. If Parker could find $ 150,000, a little corner of the rover could be hers. He therefore took on Youtube and the crowdfunding site Kickstarter and pleaded for his audience, hoping that they could help realize his dream. Only four hours after his announcement, he had already exceeded his goal. Although it was initially caught by surprise by support, Parker suspects that he understands why people were so quick to rally to his project. “People like to be part of a community,” he said, stressing how internet brings together mathematics lovers. “Perhaps you were one of the few students from the school who loved mathematics. But then, if you did not make mathematics for a career afterwards, you would never really realize how many other people love it … [Now] There is a large cheesy community that have all been. »»
Will PI calculation on the Moon allow a new insight or a scientific discovery? No. But according to Parker, that is part of the point. “People have this strange impression that mathematics are both useful [and] Not for them … I want to cross the opposite of this. Mathematics can be useless. You can do it for fun, and it’s for everyone. Math’s cognitive and social advantages are maximized, he says, when people do it for himself.
Andrea Davis, project manager and main mechanical engineer for the rover at Astrobotic, is particularly excited to involve students: “I hope that a child could see someone like me and say to me:” I can do it too. I can be a rover designer. I can put things on the moon, and I actively do it right now with PI calculation.
