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The formula for pi is fairly straightforward -- it's the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter. The fact that this ratio is a constant has been known for ages -- references to pi pop up in ancient Sumerian texts, and it's even mentioned in the Bible. Pi is an irrational number -- it can't be expressed as a ratio of two whole numbers, or as a decimal with a repeating pattern of digits. Hence, it has been the cause of
many late nights, migraines, and unhealthy fixation throughout the ages. Archimedes (3rd century BC) made the first real scientific effort to calculate pi using polygons -- he calculated pi to about 3.14. A value equivalent to 3.1416 for pi dates from before AD 200. Over the years, we've come closer to calculating the value of pi. The German mathematician Ludolph Van Ceulen (1540-1610) spent his entire life calculating pi to 35 places. Lately, computers have carried pi to more than 100,000,000 decimal places. The beauty of pi is that it's a universal constant, but
we'll never know its true value.
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