Pi = 3.14159
DID YOU KNOW THAT :
That the ratio of the circumference to the diameter of a circle is constant (namely, pi) has been recognized for as long as we have written records.
A ratio of 3:1 appears in the following biblical verse: And he made a molten sea, ten cubits from the one brim to the other: it was round all about, and his height was five cubits: and a line of thirty cubits did compass it about. (I Kings 7, 23; II Chronicles 4, 2.)
The ancient Babylonians generally calculated the area of a circle by taking 3 times the square of its radius (=3), but one Old Babylonian tablet (from ca. 1900-1680 BCE) indicates a value of 3.125 for pi.
The first theoretical calculation of a value of pi was that of Archimedes of Syracuse (287-212 BCE), one of the most brilliant mathematicians of the ancient world. Archimedes worked out that 223/71 < pi < 22/7. Archimedes's results rested upon approximating the area of a circle based on the area of a regular polygon inscribed within the circle and the area of a regular polygon within which the circle was circumscribed. Beginning with a hexagon, he worked all the way up to a ploygon with 96 sides!
European mathematicians in the early modern period developed new arithmetical formulae to approximate the value of pi, such as that of James Gregory (1638-1675), which was taken up by Leibniz as :
pi/4 = 1 - 1/3 + 1/5 - 1/7 . . . .
The symbol for pi was introduced by the English mathematician William Jones in 1706. This symbol was adopted by Euler in 1737 and became the standard symbol for pi.
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That the ratio of the circumference to the diameter of a circle is constant (namely, pi) has been recognized for as long as we have written records.
A ratio of 3:1 appears in the following biblical verse: And he made a molten sea, ten cubits from the one brim to the other: it was round all about, and his height was five cubits: and a line of thirty cubits did compass it about. (I Kings 7, 23; II Chronicles 4, 2.)
The ancient Babylonians generally calculated the area of a circle by taking 3 times the square of its radius (=3), but one Old Babylonian tablet (from ca. 1900-1680 BCE) indicates a value of 3.125 for pi.
The first theoretical calculation of a value of pi was that of Archimedes of Syracuse (287-212 BCE), one of the most brilliant mathematicians of the ancient world. Archimedes worked out that 223/71 < pi < 22/7. Archimedes's results rested upon approximating the area of a circle based on the area of a regular polygon inscribed within the circle and the area of a regular polygon within which the circle was circumscribed. Beginning with a hexagon, he worked all the way up to a ploygon with 96 sides!
European mathematicians in the early modern period developed new arithmetical formulae to approximate the value of pi, such as that of James Gregory (1638-1675), which was taken up by Leibniz as :
pi/4 = 1 - 1/3 + 1/5 - 1/7 . . . .
The symbol for pi was introduced by the English mathematician William Jones in 1706. This symbol was adopted by Euler in 1737 and became the standard symbol for pi.
Click www.TheMathWebSite.com and put a weekly
puzzle, amusement, enrichment or challenge question
like this one on your school's website!
posted by Alfred | 12:31 PM
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