March 14th (3.14)
Pi is the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter i.e.
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The value of π (pi) has been known for almost 4000 years. [If we calculated the number of seconds in 4000 years and worked out the value of π to that number of decimal places, it would still only be an approximation for the actual value of π.]
One Babylonian tablet (ca 1900-1680 BCE) has a value π = 3.125.
The “Rhind Papyrus” (ca 1650 BCE) gives an insight to Egyptian Mathematics and they came up with a value of π = 3.1605.
The first calculation of π was completed by Archimedes of Syracuse (287-212 BCE). His method came up with a value that π was somewhere between 
and 
. The value of 
was commonly used in schools before calculators were in widespread use. (It explains why the radius and diameter of circles were always given as multiples of 7.)
Zu Chongzhi (429-501) from China, calculated the value as 
(not very nice to work with so it didn’t catch on).
The symbol that we use to represent π was introduced by the Welshman William Jones (Ynys Mon, 1675-1749) in 1706. Initially, it was not popular.
The symbol was popularized by Leonhard Euler (Swiss, 1707-1783) who adopted it in 1737.
In the eighteenth-century, a French mathematician named Georges Buffon (1707-1788) devised a way to calculate π based on probability (see Buffon’s needle).
Π is defined as an irrational number which means that you cannot write it as an exact fraction (top heavy in this case). This means that it is an infinite non-recurring decimal number.
How many digits do we need for calculations?
In school we tend to work with 3 digits most of the time (3.14).
NASA only uses 15 digits for π in its calculations for sending rockets into space. (See the film “Hidden Figures” about the life of Katherine Johnson.)
To measure the universe to an accuracy that is less than the size of an atom you would only need to use the first 40 digits of π.
These last three points does make you ask why we bother to investigate the accuracy of π any further.
Teacher Resources on Line (cleavebooks.co.uk)
Some notable dates in the development of π are in the table below.
| Date | Digits | Comment |
| ≈2000 BCE | 4 | Babylonian |
| ≈800 BCE | 7 | |
| 480 CE | 8 | |
| 1400 | 10 | |
| 1596 | 20 | |
| 1706 | 100 | Symbol introduced |
| 1853 | 261 | |
| 1853 | 440 | |
| 1946 | 620 | Most by hand |
| Jan 1947 | 710 | First by desk calculator |
| 1949 | 1120 | Last by desk calculator |
| 1949 | 2037 | First by computer – 70 hours |
| Jan 1958 | 10,000 | 1.7 hours |
| 1961 | 100,265 | 8.7 hours |
| 1967 | 500,000 | 28 hours |
| 1973 | 1,001,250 | 23.3 hours |
| 1981 | 2,000,036 | |
| Jan 1987 | 134,214,700 | |
| Aug 1989 | 1,011,196,691 | First to a billion |
| 29th Apr 2009 | 2,576,980,377,524 | 29.09 hours |
| 28th Dec 2013 | 12,100,000,000,050 | 94 days |
| 14th Aug 2021 | 62,831,853,071,796 | 108 days |