The Number Pi
Pi has always been an interesting concept to me. A number that is infinitely being calculated seems almost unbelievable. This number has perplexed many for years and years, yet it is such an essential part of many peoples lives. It has become such a popular phenomenon that there is even a day named after it, March 14th (3/14) of every year! It is used to find the area or perimeter of circles, and used in our every day lives. Pi is used in things such as engineering and physics, to the ripples created when a drop of water falls into a puddle, Pi is everywhere. While researching this topic I have found that Pi certainly stretches back to a period long ago. The history of Pi was much more extensive than I originally imagined. I also learned that searching for more numbers in Pi was a major concern for mathematicians in which they put much effort into finding these lost numbers. The use for Pi was also significantly larger than I originally anticipated. I was under the impression that it was used for strictly mathematicians which is entirely not true. This is why Pi is so interesting. The history of Pi dates back to a much later period than I thought. Ancient Egypt and Babylon are one of the first places that Pi was first founded. When discovered it showed that these ancient Pi values were within one percent of it's actual value, which is incredible considering the resources that weren't available yet like we have today. The oldest documented record of Pi was in the Egyptian Rhind Papyrus, a scripture that was written during these ancient times. This was found to be dated to around 1750 BC. This surprised me the most. How were these ancient cultures able to calculate what Pi really was without the technology we have today? Around 250 BC was when the first mathematical algorithm was created for Pi. A Greek mathematician named Archimedes created this algorithm using polygons. This algorithm, created using polygons, held it's spot for about 1,000 years. In 1220, the