Question:
I would really like to impress my friends by knowing about 15 decimal places
of pi. All I know is 3.1415927. Please tell me more digits of pi.
Replies:4*atan(1.0)
billrob You might be interested in the book, A History of Pi, by Peter Beckmann.
Millions of digits of pi have now been computed. My Handbook of Mathematics
Functions gives 25 digits as 3.1415 92653 58979 32384 62643. There is an
interesting history of fractions that approximate pi. Older texts always
included 22/7 (correct to 3 decimal places, rounded) and I believe that
ancient China is credited with 355/113 (6 decimal places). With computer
help we have discovered 104348/33215 (at least as good as a ten digit
calculator).
NEWTON is an electronic community for Science, Math, and Computer Science K-12 Educators, sponsored and operated by Argonne National Laboratory's Educational Programs, Andrew Skipor, Ph.D., Head of Educational Programs.