How Newton Beat 1500 Years of Pi Calculations — In Just Hours
For over a thousand years, mathematicians struggled to calculate the digits of π (pi) , the mysterious number that relates a circle's circumference to its diameter. The ancient Greek genius Archimedes had started it all around 250 BC by drawing polygons inside and outside a circle, calculating their perimeters to trap π between two values. This method was ingenious but painfully slow. For centuries, this "polygon method" was the best humanity had — with later minds like Ludolph van Ceulen calculating π to 35 digits using thousands of polygon sides. He dedicated his entire life to this — so much that his digits were engraved on his tombstone . Then along came a man named Isaac Newton . The Calculus Revolution Newton didn’t need thousands of polygon sides. He had something far more powerful: calculus — and a brilliant idea. He thought: Why not express the geometry of the circle in a completely different language? Not with shapes, but with algebra and infinit...