the Bible credit for mentioning the concept of pi (in which it apparently equaled 3): In
one Biblical version of I Kings 7: 23–26, it states “And he made a molten sea, ten
cubits from the one brim to the other: it was round all about, and his height was five
cubits: and a line of thirty cubits did compass it about.” The same verse is found in II
Chronicles 4: 2–5 in reference to a vessel (“sea”) made in the temple of Solomon,
which was built around 950 BCE.
No one truly knows the origins of pi, although many historians believe it was
probably figured out long ago. There are some clues as to its discovery, though. For
example, some people claim the Egyptian Rhind papyrus (also called Ahmes papyrus),
which was transcribed about 1650 BCEby Ahmes, an Egyptian scribe who claimed he
was copying a 200-year-old document, contains a notation that pi equals 3.16, which
is close to the real value of pi. (For more about the Rhind papyrus, see “History of
Mathematics.”)
But it was the Greeks who promoted the idea of pi the most: They were very
interested in the properties of circles, especially the ratio of a circle to its diameter.
In particular, Greek mathematician Archimedes (c. 287–212 BCE, Hellenic) computed
close limits of pi by comparing polygons inscribed in and circumscribed about a cir-
cle. He applied the method of exhaustionto approximate the area of a circle, which, 39
MATHEMATICS THROUGHOUT HISTORY
Advances in architecture during the European Renaissance would not have been possible without similar
advances in mathematics and a knowledge of the value of π(pi). This cathedral in York, England, is a prime
example of what can be accomplished with mathematics. Taxi/Getty Images.