Sunday, May 17, 2009
THE VALUE OF piin 2000 bc, humans realised that the ratio of circumference to diameter was the same for all circles
however, what is the actual value of pi
it is easy to figure this out with the help of modern day calculators, however, what were the values thought of to be in the past?
| Person/People | Year | Value |
| Babylonians | ~2000 B.C. | 3 1/8 |
| Egyptians | ~2000 B.C. | (16/9)^2= 3.1605 |
| Chinese | ~1200 B.C. | 3 |
| Old Testament | ~550 B.C. | 3 |
| Archimedes | ~300 B.C. | proves 3 10/71 |
| Ptolemy | ~200 A.D. | 377/120=3.14166... |
| Chung Huing | ~300 A.D. | sqrt(10)=3.16... |
| Wang Fau | 263 A.D. | 157/50=3.14 |
| Tsu Chung-Chi | ~500 A.D. | proves 3.1415926 |
| Aryabhatta | ~500 | 3.1416 |
| Brahmagupta | ~600 | sqrt(10) |
| Fibonacci | 1220 | 3.141818 |
| Ludolph van Ceulen | 1596 | Calculates Pi to 35 decimal places |
| Machin | 1706 | 100 decimal places |
| Lambert | 1766 | Proves Pi is irrational |
| Richter | 1855 | 500 decimal places |
| Lindeman | 1882 | Proves Pi is transcendental |
| Ferguson | 1947 | 808 decimal places |
| Pegasus Computer | 1957 | 7,840 decimal places |
| IBM 7090 | 1961 | 100,000 decimal places |
| CDC 6600 | 1967 | 500,000 decimal places |
Francois Viete (1540-1603) determined that:
John Wallis (1616-1703) showed that:
Euler (1707-1783) derived his famous formula:
Today Pi is known to more than 10 billion decimal places.
With such a long history of pie, which other mathematical symbol can be more interesting?
Xiao Yuting
Wan Tian Chong
