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Rivers and π

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Hello! I have read that the sinuosity of rivers tends to be a bit over 3—in other words, π. There is a 1996 paper in Science [JSTOR] that started it all, and since then it has been mentioned a number of times in the popular press, including in New Scientist as well as on Wolfram MathWorld (the ¶ beginning "π crops up…") and Simon Singh's 1997 Fermat's Enigma. The paper you cite seems to disagree with this, but I am not expert enough to distinguish between the models used and what exactly each paper is measuring: certainly, a value in this case of ≤1.50 is quite different than ≈3.14.

If this is a fact or a (genuine) controversy, it seems worth mentioning. --That's Unpossible (talk) 14:55, 13 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

The π paper used the regular sinuosity, not the river/valley sinuosity index. The π claim was added to the article in April 2015. —Mrwojo (talk) 23:00, 30 June 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Laces on some mountain roads

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This article is the only place I've found "laces" mentioned as (apparently) a feature of roads. Where could I read more about what "laces" are, and/or what else they might be called in American English? 157.131.20.1 (talk) 10:56, 4 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]