A Ballistic Monte Carlo Approximation of π

Vincent Dumoulin; Félix Thouin

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arXiv · 1404.1499

A Ballistic Monte Carlo Approximation of π

Vincent Dumoulin·Félix Thouin

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Abstract

We compute a Monte Carlo approximation of π 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 π. To our knowledge, this represents the first attempt at estimating π using such method, thus opening up new perspectives towards computing mathematical constants using everyday tools.

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Vincent Dumoulin, Félix Thouin. 2014-04-08. A Ballistic Monte Carlo Approximation of π. https://arxiv.org/abs/1404.1499

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