What is the history of number pi?

The history concerning the emergence of pi goes back to the ancient Egypt, that is, to more than 4000 years ago. However, at that time it did not have the name of the Greek letter made it famous. Some of the ancient papyrus show that Egyptians gave pi the value of `3.16`.

But, after all, what is pi?

Starting with a simple explanation, it is just a number. It is represented by the Greek letter `pi` and it is used to designate the ratio between the length of a circumference and its diameter. This value is always the same no matter the size of the circumference!

How did pi develop?

Pi has a long history. There were several ancient civilizations that tried to find the most approached value of pi. As we have said before, the Egyptians managed the closest value of `3.16`. Almost at the same time, the Babylonians got the most approached estimated value of `3.125`. By the 3rd century B.C the great Greek mathematician Archimedes started by calculating the perimeter of two hexagons, being one of them inscribed and the other circumscribed in the circumference. When he increased the number of sides of the polygon till he reached 96 sides, he managed an approach concerning the value of Pi that corresponded to `3.142`. Then, making use of the same technique, and through a polygon of 720 sides, Ptolomeu managed an estimate of `3.1416`. Later, by the 5th century, by making use of a polygon with 3072 sides, the chinese managed an estimate of `3.14159`. So, the estimates were improved throughout the years. We have to stress that all these calculations were made by hand. For instance, in the 16th century, the Dutch Ludolph Van Ceulen managed the value of Pi with 35 elements. At that time, these kinds of calculations meant years and years of hard work! More recently, through the use of computers; it has been possible to calculate the value of pi having millions of decimal elements.

Well, and its symbol, when did it appear?

Many of the mathematical symbols used nowadays are due to the great Swiss mathematician Leonhard Euler. It was him who, in 1737, gave birth to the symbol `pi` in order to represent the famous number. It was also at that time that mathematicians showed that pi is an irrational number and so the number of decimal elements necessary to obtain its accurate value is infinite.

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