Happy Pi Day!

             Combine the world's favorite irrational number and a sweet confection of the same name and what do you get? Pi Day! Today is March 14, or 3/14, so I'll shed some light on the history of this popular constant.

            The origins of pi (or 3.14159...) lie in the detailed calculations of the Babylonians and Egyptians, who noted that an approximate ratio of 3:1 described the relationship between a circle's circumference and diameter. The first approximation of pi was achieved by the Greek scholar Archimedes. Unlike his unsuccessful predecessors, he chose to utilize the perimeters of polygons to estimate a value for pi. This involved inscription and circumscription of hexagons followed by a doubling of the sides four times to generate a 96-sided polygon. This significant breakthrough sparked the curiosity of a French mathematician named Françiose Viéte. He adapted the methodology of Archimedes to calculate a pi value of 3.1415926535, the first numerical approximation. Several other gifted mathematicians followed suit and estimated the value of pi to a total of 35 digits. Ludolph Van Ceulen of Germany devoted his life to elucidating the full value of pi and successfully derived the 35-digit value. The symbol for pi (π) which we hold so dear, was introduced by Leonhard Euler in 1737.

          Circles can represent a multitude of ideas. For example, they are believed to symbolize eternity, or the absence of a beginning or end. As the significance of the circle will continue to live on in cultures across the world, the concept of pi will certainly follow in the same footsteps.

courtesy: www.rebloggy.com