One of the best ways of understanding anything is to compare it to something that you already know. It’s easier to learn French if you already know English. Or it’s easier to study gravity if you’ve seen things fall. This is because, as human beings, we seek out patterns in everything that we experience. And the clearer that pattern is to us the easier we retain that information.
For this reason, I’m always very interested when someone claims to be able to make a pattern I thought I understood even clearer. That is what Michael Hartl has done with trigonometry and the use of Tau (τ) as a replacement for Pi (π). Hartly makes the case that the way we’ve been taught to understand circles and angles is convoluted and could be much more intuitive.
If you have difficulty wrapping your brain around how Pi (π) fits into the grand scheme of things, then you might want to give Tau (τ) a chance. It couldn’t hurt… except by blowing your mind. Mathematics has a way of describing the universe in such a beautiful way by pointing out, what Alan Watts calls, regularities in the behaviour of the universe. Tau (τ) is indeed a fantastic example of this.
