Welcome to the SteamPi download page!

You can get the self-extracting archive steampinstall.exe here.
 
 

What is SteamPi?

Well, then, you can just go out on the street or to a mall or something. Anywhere where there’s a bunch of strangers. And ask each person to pick two random positive integers. For each pair of integers, you determine whether they are relatively prime (if any integer larger than 1 divides them both then they aren’t relatively prime) Anyway, you keep a track of the total number of pairs you have collected, and how many of them were relatively prime. As soon as you are tired of this you go back home. Then you take the total number of pairs, multiply it by six. Divide that by the total number that were relatively prime. Then take the square root. Now, you take the result of that and multiply it by 28 inches (the diameter of the wheel). And the result will be the circumference.

This is true. Of course, this involves randomness, statistics, so accuracy isn’t absolute. But if you even just collected a couple of hundred pairs your result would probably be as accurate as if you used a tape measure.   I love this fact. And this game is just a computerization of this process. It generates random numbers to save you the bother of going out to the mall.

And rather than telling you how big your wheel is this program tries to be more generally useful by presenting its results as an estimate for Pi instead.

Optionally, instead of using your computer’s random number generator you can choose to analyze a file instead. In this mode the selected file is read as series of integer pairs and these pairs are used to determine an estimate for Pi. The file becomes your virtual mall. You may notice that when you try this option the estimate for Pi will often be quite far off. This is because most files don’t really contain random numbers. There is all sorts of structure and organization. Except for compressed files. From one perspective the whole point of compressing files is to make them appear to be a series of random numbers. The online help includes a small section about using this program to determine how well compressed a file is.

I made this game just because I love this weird little math fact. If you are intrigued too, and want to understand why it is true feel free to send me an email. I can’t recall where I first learned it, but I’m willing to look around for a source (and a proof even) if someone wants to know.
 

Another friendly product from James Spyker and the 2x4 Group

Have you checked out my other freeware yet?

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