Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Aryabhatta's pi value

The mathematical value pi has always been a curious number throughout history.

Here is Aryabhatta's version of the value of pi:


Lets split the words and understand the meaning:

चतुरधिकम् शतम् - Four more than hundred (=104)

अष्टगुणम् - multiplied by 8 (104 x 8 = 832)

द्वाषष्टि = 62

तथा सहस्राणाम् = of 1000 as such (=62000; totalling 62832)

अयुत द्वय = 10,000 x 2 (=20,000)

विष्कम्भस्य = of the diameter

आसन्न: - approximately

वृत्त परिणाह: - to the circumference.

In effect, 62832/20000 = 3.1416!

It interesting to note the large numbers he has used to arrive at Pi and the remark that pi is only an approximate value.

2 comments:

peekay said...

"It interesting to note the large numbers he has used to arrive at Pi"

rather than "arriving" at the value of Pi by "the large numbers" it is a method of representing the value 3.1416 by a method of add/multiply/add simpler numbers and converting the steps into verse .. making it easy to undestand/remember/recite

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