Type a new keyword(s) and press Enter to search

The History of Pi

 

            
             A little known verse in the bible reads "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)." This passage from the bible is the first recorded history of the number pi. Pi is mentioned in a number of verses throughout the bible. Present knowledge suggests that the concept of pi first developed in 2000 BC in two separate cultures. The Babylonians used pi at a value of 25/8 while an entirely different culture, the ancient Egyptians used pi at a value of 256/81. While the biblical calculation of pi=3 most likely came from not very good measurement, there is strong reason to believe, because of the relative accuracy of the values, that the Babylonians and Egyptians found pi by means of mathematical equations. There is strong evidence supporting that the Egyptians used 4(8/9)2 =3.16 for their value of pi. At that point in history, and for the majority of modern history, pi was not seen as an irrational number as it is today. The next culture that investigated pi was the ancient Greeks. Starting in 434 BC Greeks were unraveling the mysteries of pi. The mathematician Anaxagoras made an unsuccessful attempt at finding pi, which he called squaring the circle and in 414 BC, 20 years after Anaxagoras failed in his attempt to square the circle, Archimedes knew, what so many people today do not, that pi does not equal 22/7 and he made no claim to have discovered the exact value of pi. However if we take the average of his two bounds we obtain pi=3.1418, which was an error of about 0.0002. Archimedes found the most accurate value of pi up to that time and his value would be used exclusively until the next discovery in the world of pi. The next major finding dealing with pi did not occur in the western world, but in China by Tsu Chung-chi"h who thought pi was at 355/113 in 480 AD.


Essays Related to The History of Pi