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The Value Of π
During the last two or three centuries, there was a craze in Europe and other countries of the world to find a more and more exact value of π. A mathematician named D.Shanks found the value of down to 700 digits subsequent to the decimal point. But again the calculation was made on a modern electronic computer and many errors were found in it.*
The needle problem which depended on the probability theory, was presented by the French scientist, Buffon. On the basis of it, some scientists in Europe, tried, in the 19th century, to find the value of π and the results are as follows.5
The scientist
performing
the experiment
Wolf
Smith
Demorgan
Fox
Lazzarini
Year
1850
1855
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1860
1864
1901
Number of needle
interpolations
117
5000
3204
0600
1030
3408
value of π
The values of π found now are as follows:6
(1) 3.1415 92 65 35 89 79
(2) 3.1415 92 65 35 89 79 32 38 46 26 43 38 32 79
Mathematicians of ancient India also very well knew the value of π. Aryabhaṭṭa very often used the equation' = 3.1416.
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3.1596
3.1553
3.137
3.1595
3.141592
Scholars of the Jain tradition also have shown various values of . Though the word π (pi) is not found in Jain scriptures, following the calculations of area and circumference of circular objects, they used definite figures/numbers in place of π. In some Jain scriptures, the value of x is generally shown, in a very gross manner, to be 3. But where the circumference and area of a very large/ vast circular area like Jambudvipa, are to be found, the formula =√10 is used. Everywhere in ancient India, this value of л was accepted and it was a
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