Pi to 500k Decimal Places

The power of pi is not immedately evident from a glance at this small Greek letter. Yet the existence of pi has confounded mathematicians and engineers for centuries. What does it mean to have a real number that cannot be stated exactly? What is a number that does not appear to have any recurring pattern? And why does it crop up in unexpected places that have no apparent connection with the circumference of a circle? These questions are not answered in this book, but you do get a glimpse of the phenomenon-real numbers to grapple with. A bit of the history of pi. And a program designed to generate as many digits as you'd like.

About the Author:

Jerry Miller is a retired rocket engineer, dividing his time between cosmology, model airplane building, polishing lenses for telescopes, and unravelling the Enigma Machine in code. He and his wife Anne live in Santa Maria, California.