What is the story behind the origin of mathematical value pi?
The story of pi by Lazarus Mudehwe Undoubtedly, pi is one of the most famous and most remarkable numbers you have ever met. The number, which is the ratio of circumference of a circle to its diameter, has a long story about its value. Even nowadays supercomputers are used to try and find its decimal expansion to as many places as possible. For pi is one of those numbers that cannot be evaluated exactly as a decimal — it is in that class of numbers called irrationals. The hunt for pi began in Egypt and in Babylon about two thousand years before Christ. The Egyptians obtained the value (4/3)^4 and the Babylonians the value 3 1/8 for pi. About the same time, the Indians used the square root of 10 for pi. These approximations to pi had an error only as from the second decimal place. (4/3)^4 = 3,160493827… 3 1/8 = 3.125 root 10 = 3,16227766… pi = 3,1415926535… The next indication of the value of pi occurs in the Bible. It is found in 1 Kings chapter 7 verse 23, where using the Autho
Here’s a link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_%CF%80#History “The history of pi parallels the development of mathematics as a whole. Some authors divide progress into three periods: the ancient period during which pi was studied geometrically, the classical era following the development of calculus in Europe around the 17th century, and the age of digital computers.” The history is quite interesting, with many philosophers using interesting methods to attempt to solve the value of pi. Sources: http://en.wikipedia.
