Viète's formula
Fórmula de Viète
- Date
- 1593 · confidence high
- Place
- Tours, France
- Credited to
- François Viète
- Field
- Knowledge & symbols
What was discovered
Infinite product of nested radicals expressing the value of 2/π, published by François Viète; it is the first known infinite product in the history of mathematics and the first explicit algorithm for computing π.
What it led to
- First historical example of an infinite product in mathematical analysis
- First explicit algorithm for approximating π to arbitrary precision
- Conceptual basis for later infinite products and series, such as those of Wallis and Leibniz