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Name: david m wentzlaff
Status: N/A
Age: N/A
Location: N/A
Country: N/A
Date: Around 1995

How can a computer be used to determine pi? Is it hard to understand? I know all the good approximations but how do you write a program to find pi?

One of the best general articles related to the approximation of pi appeared in *Scientific American* Feb 1988, pp 112-118. Very readable and can be applied to your favorite programming language.


The methods given in the *Scientific American* article are based on the idea that a transcendental number may be obtained as the limit of a sequence. An algorithm based on Gregory's series of 1671 is presented and is, perhaps, the most "friendly," but unfortunately takes an enormous amount of computer time!


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