Feel the vibe, feel the terror, feel the painMad about you, orchestrally.more quotes
very clickable
visualization + math

The 2022 π Day art is a music album composed by Greg Coles for solo piano. It tells stories from the very beginning (314…) to the very (known) end of π (…264) as well as math (Wallis Product) and math jokes (Feynman Point), repetition (nn) and zeroes (null).

# $\pi$ Approximation Day Art Posters

2021 $\pi$ reminds us that good things grow for those who wait.' edition.
2019 $\pi$ has hundreds of digits, hundreds of languages and a special kids' edition.
2018 $\pi$ day stitches street maps into new destinations.
2017 $\pi$ day imagines the sky in a new way.

2016 $\pi$ approximation day wonders what would happen if about right was right.
2016 $\pi$ day sees digits really fall for each other.
2015 $\pi$ day maps transcendentally.
2014 $\pi$ approx day spirals into roughness.

2014 $\pi$ day hypnotizes you into looking.
2014 $\pi$ day
2013 $\pi$ day is where it started
Circular $\pi$ art and other distractions

The never-repeating digits of $\pi$ can be approximated by $22/7 = 3.142857$ to within 0.04%. These pages artistically and mathematically explore rational approximations to $\pi$. This 22/7 ratio is celebrated each year on July 22nd. If you like hand waving or back-of-envelope mathematics, this day is for you: $\pi$ approximation day!

Want more math + art? Discover the Accidental Similarity Number. Find humor in my poster of the first 2,000 4s of $\pi$.

The $22/7$ approximation of $\pi$ is more accurate than using the first three digits $3.14$. In light of this, it is curious to point out that $\pi$ Approximation Day depicts $\pi$ 20% more accurately than the official $\pi$ Day! The approximation is accurate within 0.04% while 3.14 is accurate to 0.05%.

## first 10,000 approximations to $\pi$

For each $m=1...10000$ I found $n$ such that $m/n$ was the best approximation of $\pi$. You can download the entire list, which looks like this

$m n m/n relative_error best_seen? 1 1 1.000000000000 0.681690113816 improved 2 1 2.000000000000 0.363380227632 improved 3 1 3.000000000000 0.045070341449 improved 4 1 4.000000000000 0.273239544735 5 2 2.500000000000 0.204225284541 7 2 3.500000000000 0.114084601643 8 3 2.666666666667 0.151173636843 9 4 2.250000000000 0.283802756086 10 3 3.333333333333 0.061032953946 11 4 2.750000000000 0.124647812995 12 5 2.400000000000 0.236056273159 13 4 3.250000000000 0.034507130097 improved 14 5 2.800000000000 0.108732318685 16 5 3.200000000000 0.018591635788 improved 17 5 3.400000000000 0.082253613025 18 5 3.600000000000 0.145915590262 19 6 3.166666666667 0.007981306249 improved 20 7 2.857142857143 0.090543182332 21 8 2.625000000000 0.164436548768 22 7 3.142857142857 0.000402499435 improved 23 7 3.285714285714 0.045875340318 24 7 3.428571428571 0.091348181202 ... 354 113 3.132743362832 0.002816816734 355 113 3.141592920354 0.000000084914 improved 356 113 3.150442477876 0.002816986561 ... 9998 3183 3.141061891298 0.000168946885 9999 3182 3.142363293526 0.000245302310 10000 3183 3.141690229343 0.000031059327$

As the value of $m$ is increased, better approximations are possible. For example, each of $13/4$, $16/5$, $19/6$ and $22/7$ are in turn better approximations of $\pi$. The line includes the $improved$ flag if the approximation is better than others found thus far.

## next best after 22/7

After $22/7$, the next better approximation is at $179/57$.

Out of all the 10,000 approximations, the best one is $355/113$, which is good to 7 digits (6 decimal places).

$pi = 3.1415926 355/113 = 3.1415929$

I've scanned to beyond $m=1000000$ and $355/113$ still remains as the only approximation that returns more correct digits than required to remember it.

## increasingly accurate approximations

Here is a sequence of approximations that improve on all previous ones.

$1 1 1.000000000000 0.681690113816 improved 2 1 2.000000000000 0.363380227632 improved 3 1 3.000000000000 0.045070341449 improved 13 4 3.250000000000 0.034507130097 improved 16 5 3.200000000000 0.018591635788 improved 19 6 3.166666666667 0.007981306249 improved 22 7 3.142857142857 0.000402499435 improved 179 57 3.140350877193 0.000395269704 improved 201 64 3.140625000000 0.000308013704 improved 223 71 3.140845070423 0.000237963113 improved 245 78 3.141025641026 0.000180485705 improved 267 85 3.141176470588 0.000132475164 improved 289 92 3.141304347826 0.000091770575 improved 311 99 3.141414141414 0.000056822190 improved 333 106 3.141509433962 0.000026489630 improved 355 113 3.141592920354 0.000000084914 improved$

For all except one, these approximations aren't all good value for your digits.

For example, $179/57$ requires you to remember 5 digits but only gets you 3 digits of $\pi$ correct (3.14).

Only $355/113$ gets you more digits than you need to remember—you need to memorize 6 but get 7 (3.141592) out of the approximation!

You could argue that $22/7$ and $355/113$ are the only approximations worth remembering. In fact, go ahead and do so.

## approximations for large $m$ and $n$

It's remarkable that there is no better $m/n$ approximation after $355/113$ for all $m \le 10000$.

What do we find for $m > 10000$?

Well, we have to move down the values of $m$ all the way to 52,163 to find $52163/16604$. But for all this searching, our improvement in accuracy is miniscule—0.2%!

$pi 3.141592653589793238 m n m/n relative_error 355 113 3.1415929203 0.00000008491 52163 16604 3.1415923873 0.00000008474$

After 52,162 there is a slew improvements to the approximation.

$104348 33215 3.1415926539 0.000000000106 208341 66317 3.1415926534 0.0000000000389 312689 99532 3.1415926536 0.00000000000927 833719 265381 3.141592653581 0.00000000000277 1146408 364913 3.14159265359 0.000000000000513 3126535 995207 3.141592653588 0.000000000000364 4272943 1360120 3.1415926535893 0.000000000000129 5419351 1725033 3.1415926535898 0.00000000000000705 42208400 13435351 3.1415926535897 0.00000000000000669 47627751 15160384 3.14159265358977 0.00000000000000512 53047102 16885417 3.14159265358978 0.00000000000000388 58466453 18610450 3.14159265358978 0.00000000000000287$

I stopped looking after $m=58,466,453$.

Despite their accuracy, all these approximations require that you remember more or equal the number of digits than they return. The last one above requires you to memorize 17 (9+8) digits and returns only 14 digits of $\pi$.

The only exception to this is $355/113$, which returns 7 digits for its 6.

You can download the first 175 increasingly accurate approximations, calculated to extended precision (up to $58,466,453/18,610,450$).

news + thoughts

# Regression modeling of time-to-event data with censoring

Mon 21-11-2022

If you sit on the sofa for your entire life, you’re running a higher risk of getting heart disease and cancer. —Alex Honnold, American rock climber

In a follow-up to our Survival analysis — time-to-event data and censoring article, we look at how regression can be used to account for additional risk factors in survival analysis.

We explore accelerated failure time regression (AFTR) and the Cox Proportional Hazards model (Cox PH).

Nature Methods Points of Significance column: Regression modeling of time-to-event data with censoring. (read)

Dey, T., Lipsitz, S.R., Cooper, Z., Trinh, Q., Krzywinski, M & Altman, N. (2022) Points of significance: Regression modeling of time-to-event data with censoring. Nature Methods 19.

# Music video for Max Cooper's Ascent

Tue 25-10-2022

My 5-dimensional animation sets the visual stage for Max Cooper's Ascent from the album Unspoken Words. I have previously collaborated with Max on telling a story about infinity for his Yearning for the Infinite album.

I provide a walkthrough the video, describe the animation system I created to generate the frames, and show you all the keyframes

Frame 4897 from the music video of Max Cooper's Asent.

The video recently premiered on YouTube.

Renders of the full scene are available as NFTs.

# Gene Cultures exhibit — art at the MIT Museum

Tue 25-10-2022

I am more than my genome and my genome is more than me.

The MIT Museum reopened at its new location on 2nd October 2022. The new Gene Cultures exhibit featured my visualization of the human genome, which walks through the size and organization of the genome and some of the important structures.

My art at the MIT Museum Gene Cultures exhibit tells shows the scale and structure of the human genome. Pay no attention to the pink chicken.

# Annals of Oncology cover

Wed 14-09-2022

My cover design on the 1 September 2022 Annals of Oncology issue shows 570 individual cases of difficult-to-treat cancers. Each case shows the number and type of actionable genomic alterations that were detected and the length of therapies that resulted from the analysis.

An organic arrangement of 570 individual cases of difficult-to-treat cancers showing genomic changes and therapies. Apperas on Annals of Oncology cover (volume 33, issue 9, 1 September 2022).

Pleasance E et al. Whole-genome and transcriptome analysis enhances precision cancer treatment options (2022) Annals of Oncology 33:939–949.

My Annals of Oncology 570 cancer cohort cover (volume 33, issue 9, 1 September 2022). (more)

Browse my gallery of cover designs.

A catalogue of my journal and magazine cover designs. (more)

# Survival analysis—time-to-event data and censoring

Fri 05-08-2022

Love's the only engine of survival. —L. Cohen

We begin a series on survival analysis in the context of its two key complications: skew (which calls for the use of probability distributions, such as the Weibull, that can accomodate skew) and censoring (required because we almost always fail to observe the event in question for all subjects).

We discuss right, left and interval censoring and how mishandling censoring can lead to bias and loss of sensitivity in tests that probe for differences in survival times.

Nature Methods Points of Significance column: Survival analysis—time-to-event data and censoring. (read)

Dey, T., Lipsitz, S.R., Cooper, Z., Trinh, Q., Krzywinski, M & Altman, N. (2022) Points of significance: Survival analysis—time-to-event data and censoring. Nature Methods 19:906–908.

# 3,117,275,501 Bases, 0 Gaps

Sun 21-08-2022

See How Scientists Put Together the Complete Human Genome.

My graphic in Scientific American's Graphic Science section in the August 2022 issue shows the full history of the human genome assembly — from its humble shotgun beginnings to the gapless telomere-to-telomere assembly.

Read about the process and methods behind the creation of the graphic.

3,117,275,501 Bases, 0 Gaps. Text by Clara Moskowitz (Senior Editor), art direction by Jen Christiansen (Senior Graphics Editor), source: UCSC Genome Browser.