# Archimedes and his solution for Pi, what do we have that is better?

1. Mar 25, 2014

### mesa

The title pretty much says it all, what do we have today that is better than Archimedes 'method of exhaustion' (although I would argue it is quite beautiful) for deriving Pi?

2. Mar 25, 2014

### micromass

3. Mar 25, 2014

### mesa

4. Mar 25, 2014

### micromass

Obviously, yes.

5. Mar 25, 2014

### mesa

A wonderfully surprising answer! Which is best and why?

6. Mar 25, 2014

### micromass

Read the wiki page I linked. It covers all that and more.

7. Mar 25, 2014

### mesa

I don't see it, explain your reasoning.
***EDIT***
If we all here to just copy and paste wikipedia links then what is the point of PF?

Last edited: Mar 25, 2014
8. Mar 25, 2014

### micromass

Explain what? That the wiki page covers the most efficient and fastest formulas and algorithms to approximate $\pi$? Did you even look at the wiki page?

9. Mar 25, 2014

### mesa

No doubt about the power of some of those identities such as Ramanujan's 1/Pi (a personal favorite!) however it is difficult to 'see', even the newbies on PF can agree to that. Providing a simple link to wikipedia and claiming victory is not being scientific.

10. Mar 25, 2014

### micromass

The point of PF is certainly not so you can ask questions that can be googled in 5 seconds.

https://www.physicsforums.com/blog.php?b=3588 [Broken]

I think we're done here.

Last edited by a moderator: May 6, 2017