Democratic Sentinel, Volume 18, Number 39, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 October 1894 — The Circumference of a Circle. [ARTICLE]

The Circumference of a Circle.

One of the most fascinating studies of the old mathematicians was what is known as the value of “pi”—pi, the Greek letter, expressing the relation of the circumference of a circle to its diameter. If the value of pi could be found exactly, the old prrblem of “squaring the circle” might be solved. That is, the side of a suuare having precisely the area of a given circle might be found. But the value of pi, which is given in the arithmetics approximately as 3.14159, can never be ascertained, exactly. The calculation has been carried to five hundred decimal places without coming to any series of repeating decimals. Mathematicians have now, by means of their modern methods of analysis, demonstrated that the calculation might be extended forever without coming to an exact result. It is not generally known that there are two numbers of three d gits each whose ratio comes surprisingly near that of the diameter and circumference of the circle. They are 113 and 355. They are to each other as one to 3.141592'4 plus, whereas tho value of pi is 3.14J5926 plus. The difference is so small that it would amount to only fifty-sev-en miles in the orbit of the earth. Or, measured by the time it would take the earth to traverse the distance, it is an error of only three seconds in a year.