Pi is one of the most popular mathematical concepts. They write pictures about him, make films, play musical instruments, devote poems and holidays to him, seek him and find him in sacred texts.
Who Discovered π?
Who and when first discovered the number π is still a mystery. It is known that the builders of ancient Babylon were already using it in full while designing. On cuneiform tablets, which are thousands of years old, even the problems that were proposed to be solved using π have been preserved. True, then it was considered that π is equal to three. This is evidenced by a tablet found in the city of Susa, two hundred kilometers from Babylon, where the number π was indicated as 3 1/8.
In the process of calculating π, the Babylonians found that the radius of the circle as a chord entered it six times, and divided the circle by 360 degrees. And at the same time they did the same with the orbit of the sun. Thus, they decided to consider that there are 360 days in a year.
In ancient Egypt, π was 3.16.
In ancient India - 3.088.
In Italy, at the turn of the epochs, it was believed that π is 3.125.
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In Antiquity, the earliest mention of π refers to the famous problem of squaring a circle, that is, the impossibility of using a compass and a ruler to construct a square whose area is equal to the area of a certain circle. Archimedes equated π with 22/7.
The closest to the exact value of π came in China. It was calculated in the 5th century A. D. e. the famous Chinese astronomer Zu Chun Zhi. Calculating π is quite simple. It was necessary to write the odd numbers twice: 11 33 55, and then, dividing them in half, put the first in the denominator of the fraction, and the second in the numerator: 355/113. The result agrees with modern calculations of π up to the seventh decimal place.
Why π - π?
Now even schoolchildren know that the number π is a mathematical constant equal to the ratio of the circumference of a circle to the length of its diameter and is equal to π 3.1415926535 … and then after the decimal point - to infinity.
The number acquired its designation π in a complex way: first, in 1647, the mathematician Outrade called the length of a circle with this Greek letter. He took the first letter of the Greek word περιφέρεια - "periphery". In 1706, the English teacher William Jones in his work "Review of the achievements of mathematics" already called the letter π the ratio of the circumference to its diameter. And the name was consolidated by the 18th century mathematician Leonard Euler, before whose authority the rest bowed their heads. So π became π.
The uniqueness of the number
Pi is a truly unique number.
1. Scientists believe that the number of digits in the number π is infinite. Their sequence is not repeated. Moreover, no one will ever be able to find repetitions. Since the number is infinite, it can contain absolutely everything, even Rachmaninov's symphony, the Old Testament, your phone number and the year in which the Apocalypse will come.
2. π is associated with chaos theory. Scientists came to this conclusion after the creation of Bailey's computational program, which showed that the sequence of numbers in π is absolutely random, which corresponds to the theory.
3. It is almost impossible to calculate the number to the end - it would take too long.
4. π is an irrational number, that is, its value cannot be expressed as a fraction.
5. π is a transcendental number. It cannot be obtained by performing any algebraic operations on integers.
6. Thirty-nine decimal places in the number π are enough to calculate the circumference of the known space objects in the Universe, with an error in the radius of the hydrogen atom.
7. The number π is associated with the concept of the "golden ratio". In the process of measuring the Great Pyramid at Giza, archaeologists found that its height refers to the length of its base, just as the radius of a circle refers to its length.