# Revision history [back]

### Why do computations with pi default to symbolic?

Hello, Sage community,

It is known fact that SageMath uses symbolic computations by default. For example,

sqrt(8)


returns 2*sqrt(2). But it is also known that this behavior can be easily changed using decimals, like in the following case:

sqrt(8.0)


which returns 2.82842712474619.

However, this technique doesn't seem to work with symbolic constants like pi and e. For example,

80 / pi


returns the expected 80/pi, but

80.0 / pi


returns 80.0000000000000/pi instead of the numerical value 25.4647908947033.

I was wondering why is this the case?

### Why do computations with pi default to symbolic?

Hello, Sage community,

It is known fact that SageMath uses symbolic computations by default. For example,

sqrt(8)


returns 2*sqrt(2). But it is also known that this behavior can be easily changed using decimals, like in the following case:

sqrt(8.0)


which returns 2.82842712474619.

However, this technique doesn't seem to work with symbolic constants like pi and e. For example,

80 / pi


returns the expected 80/pi, but

80.0 / pi


returns 80.0000000000000/pi instead of the numerical value 25.4647908947033.

I was wondering why is this the case?case.

### Why do computations with pi default to symbolic?

Hello, Sage community,

It is known fact that SageMath uses symbolic computations by default. For example,

sqrt(8)


returns 2*sqrt(2). But it is also known that this behavior can be easily changed using decimals, like in the following case:

sqrt(8.0)


which returns 2.82842712474619.

However, this technique doesn't seem to work with symbolic constants like pi and e. For example,

80 / pi


returns the expected 80/pi, but

80.0 / pi


returns 80.0000000000000/pi instead of the numerical value 25.4647908947033.

I was wondering why is this the case.