History

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The Number π and The Evolution of Mathe-

mathics

Hernán Dario Cortés Solar

1
Department of Exact and Natural Sciences
Universidad de Cartagena
2
Faculty of Pure Mathemathics
Universidad de Cartagena

Coloquio Seminario de Investigacion, 2011

Cortés,Hernán The Number π and The Evolution of Mathemathics

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Meaning of Pi

π (sometimes written pi) is a mathematical constant whose value is the

ratio of any Euclidean plane circle’s circumference to its diameter; this is
the same value as the ratio of a circle’s area to the square of its radius. It
is approximately equal to 3.14159265 in the usual decimal notation.
Many formulae from mathematics, science, and engineering involve π,
which makes it one of the most important mathematical constants.

Cortés,Hernán The Number π and The Evolution of Mathemathics

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Research of π, Antiquity

The earliest known textually evidenced approximations date from around

1900 BC; they are 256 25
81 (Egypt) and 8 (Babylonia), both within 1 per
cent of the true value.
The Indian text Shatapatha Brahmana gives π as 3 339108 .
Archimedes (287-212 BC) was the first to estimate π rigorously. By using
the equivalent of 96-sided polygons, he proved that:
10 10
3 <π<3
71 70

Cortés,Hernán The Number π and The Evolution of Mathemathics

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Second Millenium AD

Until the second millennium AD, estimations of π were accurate to fewer

than 10 decimal digits. The next major advances in the study of p came
with the development of infinite series and subsequently with the
discovery of calculus, which permit the estimation of π to any desired
accuracy by considering sufficiently many terms of a relevant series.
Around 1400, Madhava of Sangamagrama found the first known such
series:
∞
√ X −1k 4 4 4 4 4
π = 12 = − + − + ···
2k + 1 1 3 5 7 9
k=0

This is now known as the Madhava-Leibniz series or Gregory-Leibniz

series since it was rediscovered by James Gregory and Gottfried Leibniz in
the 17th century

Cortés,Hernán The Number π and The Evolution of Mathemathics

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Second Millenium AD

Around XVI century, the methods of calculus and determination of

infinite series and products for geometrical quantities began to emerge in
Europe. The first such representation was the Vite’s formula:

√ p √ √
q p
2 2 2+ 2 2+ 2+ 2
= · · ···
π 2 2 2
found by Francois Vite in 1593. Another famous result is Wallis’ product,
∞
π Y (2k)2 2 2 4 4 6 6 8 8 4 16 36 64
= = · · · · · · · ··· = · · · ···
2 (2k)2 − 1 1 3 3 5 5 7 7 9 3 15 35 63
k=1

Cortés,Hernán The Number π and The Evolution of Mathemathics

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π in the computer age

Practically, a physicist needs only 39 digits of π to make a circle the size

of the observable universe accurate to the size of a hydrogen atom. The
advent of digital computers in the 20th century led to an increased rate
of new π calculation records. John von Neumann used ENIAC to
compute 2037 digits of π in 1949, a calculation that took 70 hours. In
the beginning of the 20th century, the Indian mathematician Srinivasa
Ramanujan found many new formulas for π, some remarkable for their
elegance, mathematical depth and rapid convergence. One of his
formulas is the series,
√ ∞
1 2 2 X (4k)!(1103 + 26390k)
=
π 9801 (k!)4 3964k
k=0

where k! is the factorial of k.

Cortés,Hernán The Number π and The Evolution of Mathemathics

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Graphic aproximation of Pi

Cortés,Hernán The Number π and The Evolution of Mathemathics

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Calculations of Pi Pre-Computer Age

Cortés,Hernán The Number π and The Evolution of Mathemathics

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Calculations of Pi in Computer Age

Cortés,Hernán The Number π and The Evolution of Mathemathics