Question

what is tau

Answer 1

Greek letter. Makes a "t" sound, looks like this: \(\tau\).

Answer 2

tau mathwise is equal to 2pi
pi is only half way around the circle and so lots of calculations end up with 2pi in them
for instance the area of a circle is 2pi(r) so some have proposed using tau instead of 2pi
so the area of a circle would become
(pi)(tau) not sure why the equation thingy not working....but there you go

I asked my professor one day why pi only goes half way...oh, his eyes lit up...but it was just at the end of class, you know when the teacher says not expecting an answer "so, are there any questions?" so I never really found out.