Re: oracle question to get Date minus 1

On Fri, 29 Sep 2006 02:38:49 +0000, Mladen Gogala wrote:

> SQL> select to_char(sysdate+cos(3.14159265359),'MM/DD/YYYY HH24:MM::SS')
> from dual; 2

BTW, this is possible because Oracle RDBMS contains slight redefinition of mathematics:
SQL> select cos(3.14159265359) from dual;

COS(3.14159265359)

                -1

According to Carl Sagan and his novel "Contact", that is the number that, in its true form, contains the "signature of the Creator". Such a reduction of godliness to 11 decimal places is, I have to admit, very practical. The first 25,000 digits of the number can be found here: http://oldweb.cecm.sfu.ca/personal/jborwein/pi25000

In the world of Oracle RDBMS, pi has 11 decimal places and is, therefore, a rational number, which means that it is possible to construct a square with the same area as a given circle, only by using ruler and compass, which was a dream of many ancient geometrists, such as Anaxagoras, Thales or Archimedes. Unfortunately for them, they didn't have Oracle RDBMS. Then, again, pi is not a solution of any rational polynomial equation, so it is fairly unlikely that it is a rational number....

-- 
http://www.mladen-gogala.com