William Rutherford (mathematician)

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For other persons named William Rutherford, see William Rutherford (disambiguation).

William Rutherford (1798–1871) was an English mathematician. He is best known for his calculation of 208 digits of the mathematical constant π in 1841. Only the first 152 digits were later found to be correct. However, that still broke the world record of the time which was held by the Slovenian mathematician Jurij Vega since 1789 (126 first digits were correct)[1] As of 2002 the current world record is held by the Japanese mathematician Yasumasa Kanada who calculated the first 1.2411 trillion digits correctly.

Rutherford used the following formula:[2]

{\pi\over 4} = 4 \arctan \left({1\over 5}\right) - \arctan \left({1\over 70}\right) + \arctan \left({1\over 99}\right)

[edit] See also

[edit] References and notes

  1. ^ Use of the symbol π - Department of Mathematics, University of Auckland
  2. ^ Squaring the Circle - Department of Mathematical Sciences University of Colorado at Denver
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