CONSTANT PI

– A CASE STUDY
KRUPA JANANI G
DISCRETE MATHEMATICS
CONTENTS
1 FUNDAMENTALS
2 HISTORY
3 MODERN QUEST FOR MORE DIGITS
4 ROLE AND CHARACTERIZATIONS IN
MATHEMATICS
5 OUTSIDE MATHEMATICS
FUNDAMENTALS
DEFINITION
Π is commonly defined as the ratio of a circle’s
circumference C to its diameter d.

The
ratio C/d is constant, regardless of the circle’s
size. For example, if a circle has twice the

diameter of another circle, it will also have twice

the circumference, preserving
the ratio C/d.
IRRATIONALITY AND NORMALITY

• π is an irrational number, cannot be written as the ratio of two integers.

• Fractions such as 22/7 and 355/113 are commonly used to approximate π, but no
common fraction (ratio of whole numbers) can be its exact value.

• Because π is irrational, it has an infinite number of digits in its

decimal representation, and does not settle into an infinitely repeating pattern of
digits.
NORMALITY
 π is conjectured to be, but not known to be, a normal number.
 Yasumasa Kanada has performed detailed statistical analyses on the decimal
digits of π, and found them consistent with normality.
 Because the sequence of π's digits passes statistical tests for randomness, it
contains some sequences of digits that may appear non-random, such as a
sequence of six consecutive 9s that begins at the 762nd decimal place of the
decimal representation of π.
 π is conjectured to be, but not known to be, a normal number. For a normal
number sampled uniformly at random, the probability of a specific sequence of six
digits occurring this early in the decimal representation is about 0.08%.
 https://www.mathsisfun.com/numbers/pi-normal.html
TRANSCENDANCE
• π is also a transcendental number, which means that it is not the solution of any
non-constant polynomial equation with rational coefficients, such
as x5/120 − x3/6 + x = 0.

• The transcendence of π has two important consequences:

 First, π cannot be expressed using any finite combination of rational
numbers and square roots or n-th roots (such as 3√31 or √10).
 Second, since no transcendental number can be constructed with
compass and straightedge, it is not possible to "square the circle“.
CONTINUED FRACTIONS
Like all irrational numbers, π cannot be represented as a common fraction But every irrational
number, including π, can be represented by an infinite series of nested fractions, called a
continued fraction:
APPROXIMATE VALUE AND DIGITS
•Integers: 3

•Fractions 22/7, 333/106, 355/113, 52163/16604, 103993/33102, 104348/33215,

and 245850922/78256779

•Digits: The first 50 decimal digits

are 3.14159265358979323846264338327950288419716939937510…

Digits in other number systems

•The first 48 binary (base 2) digits (called bits)
are 11.001001000011111101101010100010001000010110100011...
•The first 20 digits in hexadecimal (base 16) are 3.243F6A8885A308D31319...
Complex numbers and Euler's identity
Any complex number, say z, can be expressed
using a pair of real numbers.

This formula establishes a correspondence between

imaginary powers of e and points on the unit circle centred
at the origin of the complex plane. Setting φ = π in Euler's
formula results in Euler's identity, celebrated in
mathematics due to it containing five important
mathematical constants:
HISTORY
Polygon approximation era
ARCHIMEDES- - 250 BC..

Archimedes computed upper and lower

bounds of π by drawing a regular
hexagon inside and outside a circle,
and successively doubling the number
of sides until he reached a 96-sided
regular polygon.

PROVED THAT:
223/71 < π < 22/7
INFINITE SERIES
Viète's formula, an infinite product

John Wallis published what is now known

as Wallis product, also an infinite product:
In the 1660s, the English scientist Isaac Newton and
German mathematician Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
discovered calculus, which led to the development
of many infinite series for approximating π. Newton
himself used an arcsin series to compute a 15-digit
approximation of π in 1665 or 1666, writing …

"I am ashamed to
tell you to how many figures I carried these
computations.”

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Newton-and-Infinite-Se
ries-1368282
In 1671, James Gregory, and independently, Leibniz in 1674,
published the series:

This series, sometimes called the Gregory–Leibniz series,

equals π/4 when evaluated with z = 1
Adoption of the symbol π

 In the earliest usages, the Greek letter π was used to denote the semiperimeter of
a circle.[8] and was combined in ratios with δ (for diameter or semidiameter) or ρ
(for radius) to form circle constants.
 Euler started using the single-letter form beginning with his 1727 Essay Explaining
the Properties of Air, though he used π = 6.28..., the ratio of periphery to radius, in
this and some later writing.
 Euler first used π = 3.14... in his 1736 work Mechanica
 Modern quest for more digits
Computer era :

Using an
inverse tangent
infinite series, same
1,120 digits in 1949
year achieved 10,000 digits 100,000 digits
using a desk 7,480 digits in 1957
calculator.
2,037 digits with a in 1958 in 1961
calculation that
took 70 hours of
computer time

until 1 million digits were reached in

1973…..
Motives for computing π

 39 digits are sufficient to perform most cosmological calculations, because that

is the accuracy necessary to calculate the circumference of the
observable universe with a precision of one atom.
 To compensate for computational round-off errors, a few hundred digits would
suffice for any scientific application.
 Despite this, people have worked strenuously to compute π to thousands and
millions of digits. This effort may be partly ascribed to the human compulsion
to break records.
 They also have practical benefits, such as testing supercomputers, testing
numerical analysis algorithms (including high-precision multiplication algorithms
); and within pure mathematics itself, providing data for evaluating the
randomness of the digits of π
The fast iterative algorithms were anticipated in 1914,
when Indian mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan
published dozens of innovative new formulae for π,
remarkable for their elegance, mathematical depth and
rapid convergence.

One of his formulae, based on

modular equations

Bill Gosper was the first to use it for advances in the

calculation of π, setting a record of 17 million digits in
1985.
Role and characterizations in mathematics
Geometry and trigonometry

•Circumference of a circle with radius r is 2πr.

•Area of a circle with radius r is πr2.

•Area of an ellipse with semi-major axis a and semi-

minor axis b is πab.

•Volume of a sphere with radius r is 4/3πr3.

•Surface area of a sphere with radius r is 4πr2
Barbier's theorem
In geometry, Barbier's theorem states that every
curve of constant width has perimeter π times its width,
regardless of its precise shape.

The perimeter of the Reuleaux triangle of width w is

equal to πw. A similar analysis of other simple
examples such as Reuleaux polygons gives the same
answer.
Units of angle Trigonometric functions rely on
angles.
1° = π/180 radians.

Common trigonometric functions

have periods that are multiples
of π;

Sine and cosine have period

2π, so for any angle θ and any
integer k,
Heisenberg's uncertainty principle

We cannot determine both position

and momentum simultaneously and
measurement of both simultaneously
leads to error in the measurement.
Outside mathematics
->Describing physical phenomena
A simple formula from the field of
classical mechanics gives the approximate
period T of a simple pendulum of length L,
swinging with a small amplitude (g is the
earth's gravitational acceleration):
SPEED OF LIGHT
A relation for the speed of light in
vacuum, c can be derived from Maxwell's
equations in the medium of classical vacuum
using a relationship between μ0 and the
electric constant (vacuum permittivity), ε0 in SI
units:
PIPHILOLOGY

 Piphilology is the practice of memorizing large numbers of digits of π, and world-

records are kept by the Guinness World Records.
 The record for memorizing digits of π, certified by Guinness World Records, is
70,000 digits, recited in India by Rajveer Meena in 9 hours
and 27 minutes on 21 March 2015.
INTERESTING FACTS

 Pi (π) is almost 4000 years old.

 Pi’s relation to the Great Pyramid of Giza drew the attention of
Egyptologists and mystic followers for centuries.
 The sequence 123456 does not appear in the first million digits of
Pi.
 In 2002, a Japanese scientist was able to find 1.24 trillion digits of
π with the help of the Hitachi SR 8000
computer(SUPERCOMPUTER).
 March 14 is the official day of celebration for
Pi day.

 March 14, or 3/14, is both Einstein’s birthday

and is also known as Pi Day, as the irrational
number Pi (π) starts with 3.14.
THANK YOU!