Vegas Sphere help!
Added 2023-10-25 09:52:48 +0000 UTCUPDATES:
- They have fixed the site! There is now an image with the correct value of π and in a nicer font.
- Someone has taken photos of the wall and it does not match what was on the site! Update video: https://youtu.be/iW1MZWBZbQU
Latest video is about The Sphere in Vegas and how the value of pi on their website is wrong. I need your help now with the follow up. If you haven't watched the video yet SPOILERS BELOW.
This page has the photo Linus found with all of the digits of pi on it. If anyone is anywhere near Vegas and can get to this corridor (we don't know if it is publicly accessible) and can send me a photo of the top left corner of the value of π please do!
https://www.thespherevegas.com/premium-suites
I've had an anonymous tip-off (from someone who worked on building The Sphere) that the design files for the "pi wall" could probably be found if we dig through enough of the public record permit drawings on file with Clark County.
I've not had time to check and see if that can be done online or we'd need to go there. But I figure my patreons are the crack team required to get the job done. Please discuss any progress or findings in the comments below so we don't duplicate effort. I believe in you all.
And yes, I'm busy because I'm about to hit the deadline for the second draft of my secret new book. Unrelated link here: https://forms.gle/Xf2bqiqZzoJkF46A6
Comments
Btw. Hopefully all my math is right. That would be really embarrassing.
Jason Sherman
2023-10-28 02:40:52 +0000 UTCI think you are right about the web designers using an old CAD file. And, I have a theory as to what may have happened. I first looked at the original website image (presumably based on the original CAD). Here are the digits that are shown and how many digits are in each line. The top row is weird because of the period. I counted that as a digit*, to be explained later. Exhibit A: Original Website 3.14159… (0th digit, 343 digits* long) 1715364… (342nd digit, 349 digits long) 6892589… (691st digit, 348 digits long) 9682303… (1039th digit) The nice thing about this font is that nearly all the characters are the same width. The period on the top row messes it up a bit, but I don’t have enough data, so I’m just going to round a bit. If we find the character width in freedom units, we can determine how physically long each line is. I looked at the picture and saw that the width of the fire extinguisher was almost exactly 3 characters. I couldn’t find that exact fire extinguisher cabinet, but they are pretty standard. I found a similar one that was 8in wide. That makes each character a very handy 2 2/3in wide (or 6.77333… cm). The average line length is, I kid you not, 346 2/3 characters long. This gives us a *very* rough wall length 924in, rounding down. Which, owing to the math gods, is exactly 77ft. Doing this quickly again for picture: Exhibit B: picture 3.14159… (0th digit, 329 digits* long) 9209628… (328th digit, 334 digits long) 2495343… (662nd digit, 333 digits long) 2019893… (995th digit, 331 digits long) 2056966… (1326th digit, 332 digits long) 5735255… (1658th digit) An average line length of 331.8 characters and a wall length of 885in which is nearly 74ft. I think that the original plan for the wall was to be 77ft long. Then, after everything was originally designed, the builders had to change the wall length for some reason. Probably to widen the doorway. You say: But hang on a second. The 1s are way skinnier than the other digits. Surely, that’s going to throw off how many numbers can fit on a line. Probably… I suppose if I wanted to, I could write a bit of python code to see how many 1s appear on each row and then take that into account. So…, that’s what I did! jk. I figure there’s probably roughly equal numbers of 1s on each row. Plus, All the other 9 digits are the same width, so the percentage offset may be negligible. In the end, I think the design/builder handoff is a solid theory. It coincides with the fact that they just cut in the extinguisher cabinet. That was done way after the digits were installed. I suppose they could have designed that in, but it would have been super hard to make it look good.
Jason Sherman
2023-10-28 02:39:12 +0000 UTCAfter the update: the plot thickens...
Pepijn Schmitz
2023-10-27 18:08:31 +0000 UTCGood research everyone! Seems like we'd need to go there in person to get the records. For now, we have a photo of the wall, so we can stand-down on this one unless we find pi in a different place in the building which matches what was on the site.
Matt Parker
2023-10-27 15:13:43 +0000 UTCAnother search location is https://docimgsrch.clarkcountynv.gov/BldDocimgsearch . I agree the parcel number is 162-16-702-002. There are over 3000 records listed at this site, but most of them look like they're not available for download. The website does say "Please note, documents that are subject to copyright protection are not available on this website and must be viewed at the Records office." so doing this over the Internet may be a bust.
Phil Brady
2023-10-27 11:55:38 +0000 UTCThe arches image is now also fixed.
PHAZE
2023-10-27 02:08:28 +0000 UTCWhile I won't be in Vegas any time soon, I applaud you all for your work in such a sphere-ious investigation.
Delvan Neville
2023-10-26 18:54:17 +0000 UTCIt looks like the website has updated the pi image. Not sure how long ago it was updated. They didn't update the arches image though.
Alex
2023-10-25 23:32:28 +0000 UTCYou need to work on your timing. I was just there on the 16th! 🙃
Peter Oneppo
2023-10-25 19:02:14 +0000 UTCwould the pi wall not be part of the theming package, if we're looking for the numbers used, rather than engineering?
audiopixie
2023-10-25 14:46:58 +0000 UTCinterestingly it also says it uses pi to calculate everything including the best seat in the house. given a lot has been made of every seat being the best in the house, that seems odd to me 😂
audiopixie
2023-10-25 14:45:19 +0000 UTCI’ll be going to Vegas this Friday to see U2 in concert at the sphere. I’ll see if I can get a photo of the wall for you
Dave Ensminger
2023-10-25 12:08:36 +0000 UTCThere is a public search for building permits here: https://aca-prod.accela.com/ClarkCo/Cap/CapHome.aspx?module=Building&TabName=Building The Sphere appears to be parcel 162-16-702-002 But there are 1059 permits for that site including a lot of revisions. In a random sample of these, none has any engineering drawings attached on this website, but this might be an inroad to figure out the permit that would lead to those drawings elsewhere.
Benjamin Fenster
2023-10-25 11:45:05 +0000 UTC
