Pi is most commonly used in certain computations regarding circles. Otherwise said, if you cut several pieces of string equal in length to the diameter, you will need a little more than three of them to cover the circumference of the circle. If you could measure and divide perfectly, you would get 3.141592653589793238., or pi. (The diameter is twice the radius, the length from any point on the circle to its center.) If you divide the circumference of the circle by the diameter, you will get approximately 3.14-no matter what size circle you drew! A larger circle will have a larger circumference and a larger radius, but the ratio will always be the same.
Next, measure the diameter of the circle, which is the length from any point on the circle straight through its center to another point on the opposite side. Now straighten out the string its length is called the circumference of the circle. Take one piece of string and place it on top of the circle, exactly once around. Try a brief experiment: Using a compass, draw a circle. According to Petr Beckmann's A History of Pi, the Greek letter π was first used for this purpose by William Jones in 1706, probably as an abbreviation of periphery, and became standard mathematical notation roughly 30 years later. (To only 18 decimal places, pi is 3.141592653589793238.) Hence, it is useful to have shorthand for this ratio of circumference to diameter. But pi is an irrational number, meaning that its decimal form neither ends (like 1/4 = 0.25) nor becomes repetitive (like 1/6 = 0.166666.). In decimal form, the value of pi is approximately 3.14. Regardless of the circle's size, this ratio will always equal pi. Succinctly, pi-which is written as the Greek letter for p, or π-is the ratio of the circumference of any circle to the diameter of that circle.
0 kommentar(er)
