Include the constant "Tau", the circle constant

[jdunham]

Please add the circle constant tau, to the Math & Scientific Constants palette.  Happy Tau day!  (see more at http://tauday.com/)

[Darin.K]

Oh yes, please keep space in that palette for the all-important natural log of pi and other constants of that ilk. I can only speak for myself in that I am aware of the existence of the 2pi constant, I'd give better than 50/50 odds that Mads, altenbach, and AQ also know. This is a great idea, ahead of its time perhaps. I like to be ahead of the curve, not behind. There is a reason we have not adopted the metric system in the US. Why do we need the meter when we have the foot?

[RavensFan]

Now that it is July, has this joke of an idea run its course?  Perhaps it should be moved to Breakpoint.

[Darren]

It's my understanding that the Tau Manifesto is truly believed by some people, yet this idea exchange post is apparently a joke.  Forgive me...I've seen scientists and engineers get truly agitated over stuff way more ridiculous than Tau vs. 2*pi, so I thought this was just another one of those situations.  I stand by my non-kudo.  😉

[jdunham]

Well it wasn't a joke. Just because something is funny doesn't mean it's not worthwhile. I realize it's hard to convey all those nuances in text, but anyway thanks for listening.

[RavensFan]

So this is now a serious LabVIEW idea based on a joke essay someone wrote?  (Although maybe the person who wrote the essay thought they were serious?)

Maybe Alfa1 should start posting to the idea exchange.

[Darin.K]

I think comparisons of jdunham (or anyone) to that individual are inaccurate and inappropriate, but are in keeping with the line of personal attacks coming from those opposed to the idea. FYI, it is a serious discussion amongst a growing number of serious academics. I do note the irony of using a bad joke to complain about the lack or seriousness of this idea.

[G-Money]

I am actually of the opinion that both should exist (2 Pi and Tau). Since LabVIEW is a graphical language, I think that there should be two constants that output the same numeric value but have different graphics. If there are commonly used constants like this that share numeric values with others, then we should have a graphical reprentation of both. Someone might search the palettes for 2 Pi while someone else might search for Tau. Whatever makes it easier to understand block diagram logic using the expectations that user has for that logic. While it would increase the number of constants in the Math and Scientific Constants palette, it would be worth it if people found the constants they were expecting to find in LabVIEW and they made it easier to quickly read block diagram logic. 

[altenbach]

There are a lot of valid points why tau is a more natural choice, but changing this would be a serious uphill battle and it would need to start in first grade.

A lot of us live in a country that never accepted SI units in the daily life, even though there was some half-hearted effort in the seventies (?). In the US we are still struggling with pints, miles, pounds, and fahrenheit, etc. As the mars climate orbiter showed us with great clarity, this stubborness can be very expensive. 😮

While I don't trust a large part of the population to reliably apply a factor of two (do we need to divide or multiply by two to get the right result?), it is mathematically a significantly simpler operation than with metric vs. english units.

I am all for adding tau (and some simple fractions of it) to the constants palette. Maybe the palette could be structured a bit better and divided into sections to avoide palette bloat.

How about a single generic math diagram constant where we can select the actual symbol/value with a hierarchical popup selector menu (similar to e.g. clicking on a method of a property mode). I thought there was already a similar idea, but maybe I am mixing it up with my universal conversion bullet. 😄

What do you all think?

[X.]

I think I have a solution:

[AristosQueue (NI)]

I think I would like to see the 2Pi constant deprecated in favor of a Tau constant which as a tip strip/context help to explain tau = 2Pi. I kind of like the simplification that Tau brings to the table. LV doing its part to support Tau seems the right thing to me. No, I'm not kidding, but also, no, this isn't something I'm passionate about.

I would prefer to not have this idea closed as Declined.