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The Life of π: From Archimedes to ENIAC and Beyond

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From Alexandria, Through Baghdad

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The desire to understand π, the challenge, and originally the need, to calculate ever more accurate values of π, the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter, has captured mathematicians— great and less great — for many centuries. And, especially recently, π has provided compelling examples of computational mathematics. π, uniquely in mathematics, is pervasive in popular culture and the popular imagination. In this paper, I intersperse a largely chronological account of π’s mathematical and numerical status with examples of its ubiquity.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Newcastle, NSW, Australia

    Jonathan M. Borwein

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  1. Jonathan M. Borwein
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. School for International Liberal Studies, Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan

    Nathan Sidoli

  2. Quest University, Squamish, British Columbia, Canada

    Glen Van Brummelen

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Borwein, J.M. (2014). The Life of π: From Archimedes to ENIAC and Beyond. In: Sidoli, N., Van Brummelen, G. (eds) From Alexandria, Through Baghdad. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-36736-6_24

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