/sci/ - Science & Math

One time an old guy heard that I was a mathematician and came out screaming that he had found a simpler formula for sphere volume. Since [math]V=\frac{4}{3}\pi r^3[/math] is a lot of multiplications and divisions, he claimed to have found a constant c such that [math]V= cr[/math], which is much easier to compute. I just gave up.

What kinds of dance are allowed in Riemannian manifolds? Does it depend on curvature?