Tracing the Evolution of Pi from Archimedes to Modern Computers
Via Brewminate
Summary
The quest to calculate pi spans more than 4,000 years, beginning with crude approximations in ancient Babylon and Egypt before Archimedes developed his polygon-based method of exhaustion in the third century BCE, bounding pi between inscribed and circumscribed shapes to achieve accuracy to two decimal places. This geometric approach dominated for over a millennium until 17th-century mathematicians introduced infinite series that converged far faster, enabling calculations of dozens and then hundreds of digits by hand.
The arrival of digital computers transformed the problem entirely, with ENIAC calculating 2,037 digits in 70 hours in 1949 and modern supercomputers now exceeding 100 trillion digits. Each successive record reflects less a practical need for more decimal places than a benchmark for mathematical ingenuity and raw computational power, with pi calculation serving as a standard stress test for new hardware and algorithms.
