How did Archimedes compute pi?

How did Archimedes manage to determine the value of pi without calculus? Connect with us at: https://www.facebook.com/TheMathCentre https://twitter. read more

Archimedes' Approximation of Pi One of the major contributions Archimedes made to mathematics was his method for approximating the value of pi. It had long been recognized that the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter was constant, and a number of approximations had been given up to that point in time by the Babylonians, Egyptians, and even the Chinese. read more

He did it by iterating polygons, ie an inscribed hexagon, an inscribed dodecagon, and successive halving to get extra places. The more advanced processes using series is a much later development. read more

Archimedes' method is new in that it is an iterative process, whereby one can get as accurate an approximation as desired by repeating the process, using the previous estimate of pi to obtain a new one. read more