March 14 - Musing about Pi

Pi is likely the most remarkable number one has met as a young student. The number, which is the ratio of circumference of a circle to its diameter, has a long history rooted in eastern and western cultures. Pi is one of those numbers that cannot be evaluated exactly as a decimal. It is a number in a class of numbers known as irrational numbers.

Various approximate values of Pi has been given in history. Some of these values are given in fractions as:

22/7  =  3,142857143...(Archimedes, Greece,250 BC)

377/120  =  3,14166667... (Ptolemy, Egypt, 150 AD)

355/113  =  3,14159292... (Zu Chong-Zhi,China, 500 AD)

These were very good approximation of the actual value

pi = 3,1415926535...

calculated with modern techniques. The value given by the Chinese mathematician/astronomer Zu Chong-Zhi was accurate to the sixth digit after decimal point.

Please use your own technique to come up with an approximate value pi of your own, and we'll talk about what you come up with if we have time in class.

Happy Pi Day!