Compute pi to base 12 using Python?

[Dan Bishop]

Dick Moores wrote:
> Dan Bishop wrote at 04:07 4/13/2005:
...
> >For a floating-point number x, the representation with d "decimal"
> >places count be found by taking the representation of int(round(x *
> >radix ** d)) and inserting a "." d places from the right.
>
> But I'm sorry, but I can't follow you. I do have the first 10000 or
so
> places of pi base 10 (<http://mathwithmrherte.com/pi_digits.htm>),
but
> could you show me what to do with, say, just 3.14159?

First, decide how many "decimal" places to use for the conversion.
Five decimal digits is equivalent to 5*log(10)/log(12) = 4.63 base-12
digits, so use 4 digits.

Next, multiply by 12**4, obtaining the value 65144.01024, and round to
the nearest integer, 65144.  Convert this to base 12, obtaining 31848.
But this is 12**4 times the number we really want, so divide this by
12**4 (i.e., shift the radix point left 4 places), for a final result
of 3.1848.