Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
1789 — Jurij Vega improves Machin's formula and computes π to 140 decimal places. 1949 — John von Neumann computes π to 2,037 decimal places using ENIAC. 1961 — Daniel Shanks and John Wrench compute π to 100,000 decimal places using an inverse-tangent identity and an IBM-7090 computer.
He also invented the so-called "Napier's bones" and made common the use of the decimal point in arithmetic and mathematics. Napier's birthplace, Merchiston Tower in Edinburgh, is now part of the facilities of Edinburgh Napier University. There is a memorial to him at St Cuthbert's at the west side of Edinburgh. [2]
That is, one has a repeating decimal. For example, 1 / 81 = 0. 012345679 012... (with the group 012345679 indefinitely repeating). The converse is also true: if, at some point in the decimal representation of a number, the same string of digits starts repeating indefinitely, the number is rational.
The use of a radix point (decimal point in base ten), extends to include fractions and allows representing any real number with arbitrary accuracy. With positional notation, arithmetical computations are much simpler than with any older numeral system; this led to the rapid spread of the notation when it was introduced in western Europe.
99.3 is "ninety-nine point three"; or "ninety-nine and three tenths" (U.S., occasionally). In English the decimal point was originally printed in the center of the line (0·002), but with the advent of the typewriter it was placed at the bottom of the line, so that a single key could be used as a full stop/period and as a decimal point.
[29] [30] [31] A decimal version of the sexagesimal number system, today called Assyro-Babylonian Common, developed in the second millennium BCE, reflecting the increased influence of Semitic peoples like the Akkadians and Eblaites; while today it is less well known than its sexagesimal counterpart, it would eventually become the dominant ...
[35] [36] Islamic mathematics developed and expanded the mathematics known to Central Asian civilizations, [37] including the addition of the decimal point notation to the Arabic numerals. [contradictory] The algebraic notation of the Indian mathematician Brahmagupta was syncopated (that is, some operations and quantities had symbolic ...
Napier's bones is a manually operated calculating device created by ... the cycle is continued to find as many decimal places required. A decimal point is marked ...