Generator

approx

A generator in the number library, called 4 times across 1 essays. Below: what it draws at its defaults and at each mode an essay asks for, what it checks while drawing, and everywhere it is used.

approx is one function. Everything below came out of it during this build, at parameters taken from the essays rather than invented for this page — so a figure here is the same figure a reader meets in an essay, and if the generator changes, this page changes with it.

At its defaults

8 multiples of φ in 7 boxesThe fractional parts of the first multiples of a number, dropped into equal boxes along the unit interval.0/71/72/73/74/75/76/7the fractional parts of φ, 2φ, 3φ, …5φ and 0φ landed in the same boxso 5φ is within 1/7 of the whole number 8 — an error of 0.0902which makes 8/5 accurate to 1.8e-2

show: "error"

How close each multiple of φ gets to a whole number, up to 40One mark per denominator, at the distance from the nearest whole number, on a logarithmic scale.2/13/25/38/513/821/1334/2155/34denominator q, up to 408 denominators beat everything before them, and every one is a convergentthe other 32 are wasted effort — a larger denominator buying a worse answer

What it checks while it draws

Collected by running the family and listening to lib/verify.js, not written here. The count is how many separate times this build put that claim to the test.

Where it is called

Changing this generator changes every figure on this list. That is what makes the list worth publishing rather than keeping in a check script.

The whole library · What the figures prove