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Archimedes, in his Measurement of a Circle, created the first algorithm for the calculation of π based on the idea that the perimeter of any (convex) polygon inscribed in a circle is less than the circumference of the circle, which, in turn, is less than the perimeter of any circumscribed polygon. He started with inscribed and circumscribed ...
A page from Archimedes' Measurement of a Circle. Measurement of a Circle or Dimension of the Circle (Greek: Κύκλου μέτρησις, Kuklou metrēsis) [1] is a treatise that consists of three propositions, probably made by Archimedes, ca. 250 BCE. [2] [3] The treatise is only a fraction of what was a longer work. [4] [5]
where C is the circumference of a circle, d is the diameter, and r is the radius.More generally, = where L and w are, respectively, the perimeter and the width of any curve of constant width.
Archimedes computed upper and lower bounds of π by drawing a regular hexagon inside and outside a circle, and successively doubling the number of sides until he reached a 96-sided regular polygon. By calculating the perimeters of these polygons, he proved that 223 / 71 < π < 22 / 7 (that is, 3.1408 < π < 3.1429). [50]
The table below is a brief chronology of computed numerical values of, or bounds on, the mathematical constant pi (π). For more detailed explanations for some of these calculations, see Approximations of π. As of July 2024, π has been calculated to 202,112,290,000,000 (approximately 202 trillion) decimal digits.
The development of analytical geometry and rigorous integral calculus in the 17th-19th centuries subsumed the method of exhaustion so that it is no longer explicitly used to solve problems. An important alternative approach was Cavalieri's principle , also termed the method of indivisibles which eventually evolved into the infinitesimal ...
The constant π (pi) has a natural definition in Euclidean geometry as the ratio between the circumference and diameter of a circle. It may be found in many other places in mathematics: for example, the Gaussian integral, the complex roots of unity, and Cauchy distributions in probability. However, its ubiquity is not limited to pure mathematics.
Archimedes did not admit the method of indivisibles as part of rigorous mathematics, and therefore did not publish his method in the formal treatises that contain the results. In these treatises, he proves the same theorems by exhaustion, finding rigorous upper and lower bounds which both converge to the answer required. Nevertheless, the ...