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Pi Facts

Pi Facts
Pi refers to the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter. The approximate value is 3.14159, often shortened to 3.14. The decimal in Pi never ends, and the numbers never repeat themselves in a permanent pattern. Because of the fact that the number repeats it is not possible to find a circle's true circumference or area. The record for calculating Pi is 5 trillion digits. The closest fraction to represent Pi is 22/7 but even this is not 100% accurate. The first calculations of Pi came from the Babylonians in 2000BC who determined it was 3.125. The Ancient Egyptians came to the conclusion that it was 3.143. Plato determined Pi to be 3.146. Isaac Newton, considered to be calculus' father, was able to calculate Pi to 16 decimal points.
Interesting Pi Facts:
The first attempt to calculate Pi was by the Rhind Papyrus who tried to measure the diameter of a circle by building a square inside it.
The first person to study Pi intensely and rigorously was Archimedes of Syracuse who lived from 287-212BC. When the city was taken by Romans Archimedes did not hear them coming. Archimedes yelled at the soldier to leave his circles alone - and the soldier killed him.
The symbol for Pi (π) was introduced by William Jones in 1706. This symbol has only been used however since 1737 after Leonhard Euler made it popular.
The first 36 digits of Pi are called the Ludolphine Number. This number is named after Ludolph Van Ceulen who spent the majority of his life calculating the first 36 numbers.
Chao Lu is the world record holder for remembering the value of Pi to the longest decimal point. His record stands at 67,890 digits.
Pi Day is celebrated on March 14th each year. This date is represented numerically by 3/14. It is supposed to start at exactly 1:59 p.m. This would make pi Day's official start at 3/14/159. Macrh 14th is also Albert Einstein's birthday.
In the TV show "Star Trek" Spock fools an evil computer into trying to compute Pi's last digit and destroys it.
A movie was made in 1988 called Pi: Faith in Chaos. It was about a man trying to find answers about Pi and he goes crazy in the process.
When giving a computer a stress test, asking it to provide the calculation of Pi is sometimes used. It is a type of digital cardiogram for a computer, the same as there are cardiograms used for stress tests on humans.
In the first 31 digits of Pi there are zero zeros.
In the Greek alphabet the symbol for Pi is the 16th letter and in the English language alphabet the 16th letter is p.
The first 144 digits add up to what many believe to be the mark of the beast - 666.
Leonardo da Vinci tried to approximate Pi by squaring the circle but he did not focus on it like others.
Some mathematicians believe that it is better to say that circles have an infinite number of corners rather than to say that they have none at all.


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