William Shanks
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| William Shanks | |
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| Born | January 25, 1812 Corsenside, County Durham, England |
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| Died | 1882, aged 70 Houghton-le-Spring, County Durham, England |
| Fields | Amateur calculator, school owner |
William Shanks (January 25, 1812 – summer 1882, Houghton-le-Spring, Durham, England [1]) was a British amateur mathematician.
Shanks is famous for his calculation of π to 707 places, accomplished in the year 1873, which, however, was only correct up to the first 527 places. This error was highlighted in 1944 by Ferguson (using a mechanical desk calculator).
Shanks earned his living by owning a boarding school at Houghton-le-Spring, which left him enough time to spend on his hobby of calculating mathematical constants. His routine was as follows: he would calculate new digits all morning; and then he would spend all afternoon checking his morning's work. To calculate π, Shanks used Machin's formula:
Shank's approximation was the longest expansion of π until the advent of the electronic digital computer about one century later.
Shanks also calculated e and the Euler-Mascheroni constant γ to many decimal places. He published a table of primes up to 60 000 and found the natural logarithms of 2, 3, 5 and 10 to 137 places.
Shanks died in Houghton-le-Spring in summer 1882, aged 70, and is buried in the local Hillside Cemetery. [2]
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ GRO Register of Deaths: JUN 1882 10a 252 HOUGHTON - William Shanks, aged 70
- ^ Houghton le Spring Hillside Cemetery
[edit] External links
| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| NAME | Shanks, William |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | |
| SHORT DESCRIPTION | Amateur calculator, school owner |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1812-01-25 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Corsenside, County Durham, England |
| DATE OF DEATH | 1882 |
| PLACE OF DEATH | Houghton-le-Spring, County Durham, England |
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