Comments on: Prehistoric Calculus: Discovering Pi http://betterexplained.com/articles/prehistoric-calculus-discovering-pi/ Learning shouldn't hurt. Let's share the insights that made difficult ideas click. Fri, 20 Nov 2009 14:09:06 -0800 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: Kalid http://betterexplained.com/articles/prehistoric-calculus-discovering-pi/#comment-252037 Kalid Tue, 08 Sep 2009 07:23:06 +0000 http://betterexplained.com/articles/prehistoric-calculus-discovering-pi/#comment-252037 @Dedic: That's a cool story -- there's always something to be said for the joy of discovery, even if you weren't the first to do so :). @Dedic: That’s a cool story — there’s always something to be said for the joy of discovery, even if you weren’t the first to do so :) .

]]> By: Dedic http://betterexplained.com/articles/prehistoric-calculus-discovering-pi/#comment-252034 Dedic Tue, 08 Sep 2009 07:12:44 +0000 http://betterexplained.com/articles/prehistoric-calculus-discovering-pi/#comment-252034 I actually came up with Archimede's method on my own but I started with a triangle and kept going with more polygons (basically each side of the triangle got another triangle, and so on). Basic geometry got me from the perimeter of one poly to the next. Using my PC i was able to calculate pi to a million decimal places rather quickly (i did a text-compare with one i found online and it was right). I thought i may have stumbled on something new but later i found out it was not so. The only interesting thing was that it was recursive and used only basic geometry (right triangles). I actually came up with Archimede’s method on my own but I started with a triangle and kept going with more polygons (basically each side of the triangle got another triangle, and so on). Basic geometry got me from the perimeter of one poly to the next. Using my PC i was able to calculate pi to a million decimal places rather quickly (i did a text-compare with one i found online and it was right). I thought i may have stumbled on something new but later i found out it was not so.
The only interesting thing was that it was recursive and used only basic geometry (right triangles).

]]> By: Kalid http://betterexplained.com/articles/prehistoric-calculus-discovering-pi/#comment-249823 Kalid Thu, 13 Aug 2009 08:51:13 +0000 http://betterexplained.com/articles/prehistoric-calculus-discovering-pi/#comment-249823 @Simon: Awesome, glad it was helpful for you! @Sapan: Yes, I struggle with that too -- I don't have an intuitive understanding of why it would be the geometric and harmonic mean to figure out those ratios. Right now my understanding is at the level of "the math works" :). @Simon: Awesome, glad it was helpful for you!

@Sapan: Yes, I struggle with that too — I don’t have an intuitive understanding of why it would be the geometric and harmonic mean to figure out those ratios. Right now my understanding is at the level of “the math works” :) .

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