The History of π

In the long history of the number π, there have been many twists and turns, many inconsistencies
that reflect the condition of the human race as a whole. Through each major period of world
history and in each regional area, the state of intellectual thought, the state of mathematics, and
hence the state of π, has been dictated by the same socio-economic and geographic forces as
every other aspect of civilization. The following is a brief history, organized by period and region,
of the development of our understanding of the number π.

In ancient times, π was discovered independently by the first civilizations to begin agriculture.
Their new sedentary life style first freed up time for mathematical pondering, and the need for
permanent shelter necessitated the development of basic engineering skills, which in many
instances required a knowledge of the relationship between the square and the circle (usually
satisfied by finding a reasonable approximation of π). Although there are no surviving records of
individual mathematicians from this period, historians today know the values used by some
ancient cultures. Here is a sampling of some cultures and the values that they used: Babylonians
- 3 1/8, Egyptians - (16/9)^2, Chinese - 3, Hebrews - 3 (implied in the Bible, I Kings vii, 23).

The first record of an individual mathematician taking on the problem of π (often called "squaring
the circle," and involving the search for a way to cleanly relate either the area or the
circumference of a circle to that of a square) occurred in ancient Greece in the 400's B.C. (this
attempt was made by Anaxagoras). Based on this fact, it is not surprising that the Greek culture
was the first to truly delve into the possibilities of abstract mathematics. The part of the Greek
culture centered in Athens made great leaps in the area of geometry, the first branch of
mathematics to be thoroughly explored. Antiphon, an Athenian philosopher, first stated the
principle of exhaustion (click on Antiphon for more info). Hippias of Elis created a curve called the
quadratrix, which actually allowed the theoretical squaring of the circle, though it was not
practical.

In the late Greek period (300's-200's B.C.), after Alexander the Great had spread Greek culture
from the western borders of India to the Nile Valley of Egypt, Alexandria, Egypt became the
intellectual center of the world. Among the many scholars who worked at the University there, by
far the most influential to the history of π was Euclid. Through the publishing of Elements, he
provided countless future mathematicians with the tools with which to attack the π problem. The
other great thinker of this time, Archimedes, studied in Alexandria but lived his life on the island of
Sicily. It was Archimedes who approximated his value of π to about 22/7, which is still a common
value today.

Archimedes was killed in 212 B.C. in the Roman conquest of Syracuse. In the years after his
death, the Roman Empire gradually gained control of the known world. Despite their other
achievements, the Romans are not known for their mathematical achievements. The dark period
after the fall of Rome was even worse for π. Little new was discovered about π until well into the
decline of the Middle Ages, more than a thousand years after Archimedes' death. (For an
example of at least one mediaeval mathematician, see Fibonacci.)

The History of π (cont.)

While π activity stagnated in Europe, the situation in other parts of the world was quite different.
The Mayan civilization, situated on the Yucatan Peninsula in Central America, was quite
advanced for its time. The Mayans were top-notch astronomers, developing a very accurate
calendar. In order to do this, it would have been necessary for them to have a fairly good value for
π. Though no one knows for sure (nearly all Mayan literature was burned during the Spanish
conquest of Mexico), most historians agree that the Mayan value was indeed more accurate than
that of the Europeans. The Chinese in the 5th century calculated π to an accuracy not surpassed
by Europe until the 1500's. The Chinese, as well as the Hindus, arrived at π in roughly the same
method as the Europeans until well into the Renaissance, when Europe finally began to pull
ahead.

During the Renaissance period, π activity in Europe began to finally get moving again. Two
factors fueled this acceleration: the increasing importance of mathematics for use in navigation,
and the infiltration of Arabic numerals, including the zero (indirectly introduced from India) and
decimal notation (yes, the great mathematicians of antiquity made all of their discoveries without
our standard digits of 0-9!). Leonardo Da Vinci and Nicolas Copernicus made minimal
contributions to the π endeavor, but François Viète actually made significant improvements to
Archimedes' methods. The efforts of Snellius, Gregory, and John Machin eventually culminated in
algebraic formulas for π that allowed rapid calculation, leading to ever more accurate values of π
during this period.

In the 1700's the invention of calculus by Sir Isaac Newton and Leibniz rapidly accelerated the
calculation and theorization of π. Using advanced mathematics, Leonhard Euler found a formula
for π that is the fastest to date. In the late 1700's Lambert (Swiss) and Legendre (French)
independently proved that π is irrational. Although Legendre predicted that π is also
transcendental, this was not proven until 1882 when Lindemann published a thirteen-page paper
proving the validity of Legendre's statement. Also in the 18th century, George Louis Leclerc,
Comte de Buffon, discovered an experimental method for calculating π. Pierre Simon Laplace,
one of the founders of probability theory, followed up on this in the next century. Click here to
learn more about Buffon's and Laplace's method.

Starting in 1949 with the ENIAC computer, digital systems have been calculating π to incredible
accuracy throughout the second half of the twentieth century. Whereas ENIAC was able to
calculate 2,037 digits, the record as of the date of this article is 206,158,430,000 digits, calculated
by researchers at the University of Tokyo. It is highly probable that this record will be broken, and
there is little chance that the search for ever more accurate values of π will ever come to an end.

Click here to view all biographies. How Much Fun Can π Be?
Pi (π) is one of the most important numbers in Mathematics, and yet it is one of those we know
least about. Its mysteries have puzzled some of the best mathematicians throughout history,
including Euler and Archimedes. We know what you are thinking by now, "Who in the world would
want to create a web page about π?" Well, we did. Despite the obvious fact that we must be out
of our minds, one can actually have fun with π. We figure that once you get to understand π, you
will be able to play with π. Soon we will have you having more fun than you thought you could
have with a number.

Feel free to just snoop around this site, or, if you like, you can follow the Trail Map to learn about
π from start to finish. In order to enjoy π, you have to make it your own. So, use this site as a
launching pad for you exploration of π. Whatever you do, don't stop here, there's too much about
π for only one source. Check other sites and even your local library for more information on this
incredible number. However you do it, you have to find your own piece of the π.

And when you finally get tired of just reading about the history, come over and help make some
history of your own. PiClient, a distributed computing approach to calculating π, is ready for your
participation. Join a growing number of users as they contribute their spare computer time to
unlocking one of the greatest mathematical mysteries of all time. Click here to go to the History

Forum.

Math enthusiasts eat pizza pie

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