13 Jul
2006
13 Jul
'06
3:03 a.m.
Jason writes: << . . . Let's see if I can write it as a formula instead of an algorithm: n n 4 ___ ___ --- \ \ pi ~ n*n * / / 1 if sqrt(x*x+y*y) < n --- --- x=0 y=0 Does that look about right? . . .
Yes. In fact one of the old classic math books (Geom. & the Imagination? What is Mathematics? Math. & the Imagination?) uses this observation to obtain the series pi/4 = 1 - 1/3 + 1/5 - 1/7 + . . . . --Dan