Printout, Pi to 100,000 Decimal Places
date: label: date made
content: 1961
name: label: maker
content: IBM
notes: label: Description
content: The ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter has long been denoted by the Greek letter ∏ (pronouced pi). It is roughly equal to 3.14. From the mid-seventeenth century, mathematicians developed expression of pi in terms of infinite series. These, particularly ones involving expressions of pi in terms of arctangents, were used through the nineteenth century in calculations by hand, and in the first half of the twentieth century with the assistance of desk calculators. For example, John W. Wrench, Jr., working with Levi B. Smith and then with D.F. Ferguson, used such a machine preparing an 808 decimal place approximation of pi published in 1948.
label: Description
content: The advent of electronic computers made it possible to carry out such calculations rapidly. In September 1949, George W. Reitweiser and his associates published a 2.037 place (2040 working decimals) approximation calculated that year on the ENIAC computer in seventy hours. Further calculations of pi were carried out on such early computers as the NORC (1954 & 1955 – 3090 decimal places, computed in 13 minutes), an IBM 704 in Paris (1958 , 10,000 decimal places computed in 100 minutes), and a Pegasus computer in Britain (1958, 10,000 decimal places computed in 33 hours). On July 29, 1961, David Shanks and John W. Wrench, Jr., used an IBM 7090 computer in New York to compute the value of pi to 100,000 decimal places. The computer required 8 hours and 43 minutes. This is a bound computer printout of their result. Five thousand digits are printed on each page.
label: Description
content: The printout was given to the Smithsonian on the fifteenth anniversary of the occasion, July 29, 1976, by Harry and Blanche Polachek.
label: Description
content: For references, see 1977.3005.10.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Computers
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Harry and Blanche Polachek
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1977.0192.01
label: catalog number
content: 1977.0192.01
label: accession number
content: 1977.0192
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Documentation
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: paper (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 1.2 cm x 38.7 cm x 28.5 cm; 15/32 in x 15 1/4 in x 11 7/32 in