Zu Chongzhi bounds for pi
Pi entre 3,1415926 y 3,1415927 y fracción 355/113
- Date
- c. 480 · confidence medium
- Place
- Jiankang (Nanjing), China
- Credited to
- Zu Chongzhi (with his son Zu Gengzhi)
- People
- 👤 Zu Chongzhi429–500
- Field
- Knowledge & symbols
What was discovered
He bounded pi to seven correct decimal places, a world record for about 900 years, and proposed the approximation 355/113. His son Zu Gengzhi formulated Cavalieri's principle for volumes a thousand years before Cavalieri.
The method (probably a 24,576-sided polygon) was lost along with his work Zhui Shu.
What it led to
- polygon-based calculation of pi up to al-Kashi
- Cavalieri's principle
Built on
Made possible
- Daming calendar