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Conference rusure::math

Title:Mathematics at DEC
Moderator:RUSURE::EDP
Created:Mon Feb 03 1986
Last Modified:Fri Jun 06 1997
Last Successful Update:Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:2083
Total number of notes:14613

37.0. "Approximation for PI" by METOO::YARBROUGH () Thu Feb 16 1984 12:30

In case you haven't seen this before...

For may centuries the value of PI was approximated by 22/7 = 3.142857... .
More recently the more accurate 355/113 has been used, which is accurate
to about 6 places. Now that we have pocket calculators everywhere, most
of them with square root keys, a much more accurate approximation to PI
is available with no more mental effort:

	srqt(sqrt(2143/22)) = 3.1415926525+

which on my TI-58 displays the first 10 digits of PI correctly (but not
rounded). Note that 2143 is just 1234 with the digits switched in two pairs.

This was first published as the solution to a puzzle in the Journal of 
Recreational Mathematics several years ago, but it deserves to be more widely
known.

Lynn Yarbrough
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37.1HARE::STANSat Feb 25 1984 17:3419
In [1], Frank Rubin asked for the polynomial of degree less than
or equal to 5 with integer coefficients in the range [-100,100]
that had a zero closest in value to pi.

The best approximation was found by Harry Nelson.  It is

   5      4      3      2
11x  - 17x  - 42x  - 37x  - 27x + 42

which has a root of 3.1415926535897 which differs from the correct
value of pi by approximately 10^(-13).

Lynn's approximation, x^4=2143/22, is not of the requested class,
but is very easy to remember.

			Reference

[1] Frank Rubin, Problem 589, Journal of Recreational Mathematics,
		 11(1978-1979)45-46.
37.2HARE::STANFri Apr 13 1984 05:086
The reference to Lynn's article is:

Lynn Yarbrough, Problem 925, The Malfunctioning Calculator.
Journal of Recreational Mathematics 14(1981)66.

See also his filler article, loc. cit. 13(1980)262.
37.3HARE::STANFri Jun 08 1984 04:114
According to Philip J. Davis in The Lore of Large Numbers
(New Math Library), page 65, the approximation 22 pi^4 = 2143
was discovered in 1914 by the famous Indian mathematician,
Srinivasa Ramanujan.
37.4A good recent articleAKQJ10::YARBROUGHWhy is computing so labor intensive?Wed Jan 13 1988 12:105
For more on Ramanujan and Pi, see the Feb. 1988 issue of Scientific 
American, p.112-115. How to calculate Pi to 2 billion places with your
'pocket' calculator!

Lynn 
37.5BEING::POSTPISCHILAlways mount a scratch monkey.Thu Feb 11 1988 13:4718
    I was surprised the article did not mention the sequence:
    
    	pi/4 = 1/2 + 1/6 + 1/15 + 1/35 + 4/315 + . . .
    
    It has the nice property of being fairly easy to write an algorithm
    for; you can compute the n-th term (starting with zero) by multiplying
    the previous term by n and dividing by 2n+1.  Since 2n+1 remains small
    for a long time, the multplication and division consist of multiplying
    a many-digit number by a single-digit number (considering the words the
    processor multiplies as single digits).  Then you just add the term to
    the sum, a simple algorithm even for many-digit numbers. 
    
    Each term is less than half the preceding term, so figuring the error
    is simple; it is the last term plus (n+1) times the least significant
    bit.
    
    
    				-- edp 
37.6other approximationsULYSSE::ZITTAULYSSE in wonderlandTue Oct 11 1988 14:4530
    
    Here are other values (some better than others..)
    ( # will mean "approximately equals")    
    
    pi^2   1      1     1     1
    ---- = --- + --- + --- + --- + ..........
      6    1^2   2^2   3^2   4^2
                                             
    pi # sqrt(10)            
    pi # sqrt(2) + sqrt(3)
    
    pi # 4 / sqrt(k)    	k= (1 + sqrt(5))/2 =1.61803399...
    
    pi # (4/3)^4
    
    pi # 2*sqrt(2*sqrt(5) - 2)
    pi # 22/7
    
    pi # 20*sqrt(2) /9
    pi # 3 + 1/8 + 1/60
    
    pi # sqrt[(40 - 6*sqrt(3))/3 ]
    
    pi # (13/50)*sqrt(146)
    
    pi # 5/4 + [sqrt(229)]/8
                
    pi # 355/113
    pi # 167/80 + [sqrt(10)]/3
                              
37.7A new mathematical truthEVTSG8::ESANUAu temps pour moiFri Sep 22 1995 08:4813
From

Ebbinghaus et al., Numbers, Springer-Verlag, GTM 123, 1991, ISBN
0-387-97497-0 or 3-540-97497-0 :

> The House of Representatives of the State of Indiana in the U.S.A.
> unanimously passed in 1897 an "Act introducing a new mathematical truth",
> which proposed two values for PI, namely 4 and 3.2. The Senate of Indiana
> postponed "indefinitely" the adoption of this measure. Fortunately for the
> people of Indiana, the "indefinitely" still continues (see D. Singmaster,
> The legal values of PI, Math. Intelligencer, 7(2), 1985, 69-72).

Mihai.