Documents the history of pi. The articles on pi collected herein include selections from the mathematical and computational literature over four millennia, a variety of historical studies on the cultural significance of the number.

This book documents the history of pi from the dawn of mathematical time to the present. The articles include selections from the mathematical and computational literature over four millennia, a variety of historical studies on the cultural significance of the number, and an assortment of anecdotal, fanciful, and simply amusing pieces.

Preface.- Acknowledgements.- Introduction.- The Rhind Mathematical Papyrus-Problem 50.- Engles. Quadrature of the Circle in Ancient Egypt.- Archimedes. Measurement of a Circle.- Phillips. Archimedes the Numerical Analyst.- Lam &
Ang. Circle Measurements in Ancient China.- The Banu Musa: The Measurement of Plane and Solid Figures.- Madhava's. The Power Series for Arctan and Pi.- Hope-Jones. Ludolph van Ceulen.- Viete. Variorum de Revus Mathematicis Reponsorum Liber VII.- Wallis. Computation of Pi by Successive Interpolations.- Wallis. Arithmetica Infinitorum.- Huygens. De Circuli Magnitudine Inventa.- Gregory. Correspondence with John Collins.- Jones. The First Use of Pi for the Circle Ratio.- Newton. Of The Method of Fluxions and Infinite Series.- Euler. Chapter 10 of Introduction to Analysis of the Infinite.- Lambert. Memoire Sur Quelques Proprietes Remarquables Des Quantites Transcendentes Circulaires et Logarithmiques.- Lambert. Irrationality of Pi.- Shanks. Contributions to Mathematics Comprising Chiefly of the Rectification of the Circle to 607 Places of Decimals.- Hermite. Sur La Fonction Exponentielle.