A Ballistic Monte Carlo Approximation of {\pi}
Popular Physics
2014-04-10 v2
Abstract
We compute a Monte Carlo approximation of {\pi} using importance sampling with shots coming out of a Mossberg 500 pump-action shotgun as the proposal distribution. An approximated value of 3.131 is obtained, corresponding to a 0.33% error on the exact value of {\pi}. To our knowledge, this represents the first attempt at estimating {\pi} using such method, thus opening up new perspectives towards computing mathematical constants using everyday tools.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1404.1499,
title = {A Ballistic Monte Carlo Approximation of {\pi}},
author = {Vincent Dumoulin and Félix Thouin},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1404.1499},
year = {2014}
}
Comments
Correct minor typos, refine data analysis by using different subsets of the samples to estimate density and estimate {\pi}. Results have not changed significatively