How Archimedes found the area of a circle

"Squaring the Circle"

The problem of determining the area of a circle was once considered a great mathematical challenge. On this page, we will discuss a method that Archimedes (287-212 BCE) used for solving this problem. (This problem was called "squaring the circle": i.e. trying to find the square that has the same enclosed area as a circle of a given radius.) Ofcourse, we now know that

The whole point will be to actually show that this is true, by somehow computing the area of the circle from known areas of simpler shapes.

A reminder about Pi
The irrational number that is: is defined as the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter,

We will use this result in the final steps of the method below.

Step 1: Approximating the circle with a square

The diagram here shows a square inscribed in a circle. (Inscribed means that it exactly fits inside, with its vertices just touching the edge of the circle). Let us look at the geometry more closely.

We notice that the diagonals of the square are the same as the diameter of the circle, and so have length . Thus the sides of the square, AB, BC which are equal ofcourse, must have length . (Since ABC is a right triangle, whose hypotenuse is AC). Thus the area of the inscribed square is thus

This is still not a very good approximation to the true area of the circle, but it is a start.

Step 2: Approximating the circle with a hexagon

If we use a polygon with more sides to try to approximate the area of the circle, we would hope to get a better result. So consider an approximation which uses the hexagon, as shown in the diagram. To find the area of the hexagon, we might subdivide it into six triangles, whose area is easily computed if we know the height and the base of any one of the (all equal) triangles. One such triangle is shown in the diagram at left: Observe that its sides AC and AB are of length , since they are radii of the circle. Further, notice that the angle ABC should be 60 degrees (i.e. one sixth of a revolution, 360/6 =60 degrees). This implies that the sum of the other angles, CAB plus CBA is 120 degrees (since the sum of all the angles in a triangle is 180 degrees). Further, since they are equal (opposite equal sides), they, too, must be 60 degrees. So we have, hopefully, convinced you that the triangles in this hexagon are all equilateral: all three sides are of length . We leave it up to you to further establish that the height of each of these triangles is hexagon, it follows, is: , so that the area of the

This is closer to the true area of the circle, but still not very close.

Step n: Using an n-sided polygon

Suppose we increase the number of sides in the polygon and look at the general case, in which there are n sides. Then the area of the n sided polygon will be n times the area of one of the triangles, i.e.

where are, respectively the base and height of one of the triangles shown in this picture. Now note what happens as the number of sides, n increases:

In this expression, the term is the perimeter of the polygon, which, as n increases, becomes closer and closer to the circumference of the circle. Further, the height of the triangle, approaches the radius of the circle, so that, as we approximate the circle by a polygon with more sides, i.e. a greater number of (thinner) triangles, we find that the area approaches:

We have shown above, that the area of the circle does indeed involve that special constant which arose as the ratio of the circumference to the diameter of the circle. By dragging the red ball in the diagram below, you can experiment with the number of sides in the polygon used to approximate the area of the circle. You should notice that as n increases, the area of the polygon becomes a closer and closer fit to the area of the circle. Drag the red ball. As the number of sides, n, in the polygon increases, its area becomes a closer and closer approximation to the area of the circle.

For your consideration:

(1) Show that the length of each side of the square in the first step we did is . (2) Show that the height of the triangles that form the hexagon, in the second step we discussed is . (3) Suppose you were to consider a 36-sided polygon. In that case the angle of the tip of each of the triangular subdivisions would be 360/36 = 10 degrees. This is not a "standard" angle, but we could certainly use trigonometry to establish the length of the base and the height of such a triangle. What would you get for the area of this 36-sided polygon? How does this area compare with the true area of the circle?

This is the last time we will be using triangles to compute areas for a little while. From now on, you will see that rectangular subdivisions will form a much more important unit of subdivision in computing areas of irregular regions in the plane. However, the concept of increasing the number of units to better approximate some complicated shape will be very basic. It will appear and reappear in many examples, as it forms one of the key ideas in integral calculus.

Mathematicians and scientists have always been intrigued by pi, but it acquired a whole new following when it foiled a diabolic computer in a Star Trek episode. wears different hats -- it is the ratio of a circle's circumference to the diameter, it is a transcendental number (a number that cannot be the solution of an algebraic equation with integral coefficients). One of the most curious methods for computing is attributed to the 18th century French naturalist, Count Buffon and his Needle Problem. A plane surface is ruled by paralled lines, all d units apart. A needle of length at least d is dropped on the ruled surface. If the needle lands on a line, the toss is considered favorable. Buffon's amazing discovery was that the ratio of favorable tosses to unfavorable was an expression involving pi. If the needle's length is equal to d units, the probability of a favorable toss is 2/pi. The more tosses, the more closely did the result approximate. In yet another probability method to compute pi, R. Charles, in 1904 found the probability of 2 numbers (written at random) being relatively prime to be 6/pi. It's startling to discover the versatility of pi, crossing as it does the wide spectrum of geometry, calculus and probability.

Buffon's Needle
Buffon's Needle The Buffon's Needle problem is a mathematical method of approximating the value of pi involving repeatedly dropping needles on a sheet of lined paper and observing how often the needle intersects a line. Buffon's Needle

The method was first used to approximate by Georges-Louis Leclerc, the Comte de Buffon, in 1777. Buffon was a mathematician, and he wondered about the probability that a needle would lie across a line between two wooden strips on his floor. To test his question, he apparently threw bread sticks across his shoulder and counted when they crossed a line. Calculating the probability of an intersection for the Buffon's Needle problem was the first solution to a problem of geometric probability. The solution can be used to design a method for approximating the number . Subsequent mathematicians have used this method with needles instead of bread sticks, or with computer simulations. We will show that when the distance between the lines is equal the length of the needle, an approximation of can be calculated using the equation

Monte Carlo Methods

The Buffon's needle problem was the first recorded use of a Monte Carlo method. These methods employ repeated random sampling to approximate a probability, instead of computing the probability directly. Monte Carlo calculations are especially useful when the nature of the problem makes a direct calculation impossible or unfeasible, and they have become more common as the introduction of computers makes randomization and conducting a large number of trials less laborious. is an irrational number, which means that its value cannot be expressed exactly as a fraction a/b, where a and b are integers. This also means that a normal decimal repetition of pi is nonterminating and non-repeating, and mathematicians have been challenged with trying to determine increasingly accurate approximations. The timeline below shows the improvements in approximating throughout history. In the past 50 years especially, improvements in computer capability allow more decimal places to be determined. Nonetheless, better methods of approximation are still desired.

A recent study conducted the Buffon's Needle experiment to approximate using computer software. The researchers administered 30 trials for each number of drops, and averaged their estimates for . They noted the improvement in accuracy as more trials were conducted.

These results show that the Buffon's Needle method approximation is relatively tedious. Compared to other computation techniques, Buffon's method is impractical because the estimates converge towards rather slowly. Even when a large number of needles were dropped, this experiment gave a value of that was inaccurate in the third decimal place. Regardless of the impracticality of the Buffon's Needle method, the historical significance of the problem as a Monte Carlo method means that it continues to be widely recognized.

Lucas number
The Lucas numbers are an integer sequence named after the mathematician Franois douard Anatole Lucas (18421891), who studied both that sequence and the closely related Fibonacci numbers. Lucas numbers and Fibonacci numbers form complementary instances of Lucas sequences.

Definition
Like the Fibonacci numbers, each Lucas number is defined to be the sum of its two immediate previous terms, i.e. it is a Fibonacci integer sequence. Consequently, the ratio between two consecutive Lucas numbers converges to the golden ratio. However, the first two Lucas numbers are L0 = 2 and L1 = 1 instead of 0 and 1, and the properties of Lucas numbers are therefore somewhat different from those of Fibonacci numbers. A Lucas number may thus be defined as follows:

The sequence of Lucas numbers begins:

2, 1, 3, 4, 7, 11, 18, 29, 47, 76, 123, ... (sequence A000032 in OEIS)

Extension to negative integers

Using Ln-2 = Ln - Ln-1, one can extend the Lucas numbers to negative integers to obtain a doubly infinite sequence :
..., -11, 7, -4, 3, -1, 2, 1, 3, 4, 7, 11, ... (terms Ln for are shown).

The formula for terms with negative indices in this sequence is

Relationship to Fibonacci numbers

The Lucas numbers are related to the Fibonacci numbers by the identities

, and thus as

approaches +, the ratio

approaches

Their closed formula is given as:

where

is the Golden ratio. Alternatively, Ln is the closest integer to

Congruence relation
Ln is congruent to 1 mod n if n is prime, but some composite values of n also have this property.

Lucas primes
A Lucas prime is a Lucas number that is prime. The first few Lucas primes are
2, 3, 7, 11, 29, 47, 199, 521, 2207, 3571, 9349, ... (sequence A005479 in OEIS)

If Ln is prime then n is either 0, prime, or a power of 2.[1] L2m is prime for m = 1, 2, 3, and 4 and no other known values of m.

Lucas polynomials
The Lucas polynomials Ln(x) are a polynomial sequence derived from the Lucas numbers in the same way as Fibonacci polynomials are derived from the Fibonacci numbers. Lucas polynomials are defined by the following recurrence relation:

Lucas polynomials can be expressed in terms of Lucas sequences as

The first few Lucas polynomials are:

The Lucas numbers are recovered by evaluating the polynomials at x = 1. The degree of Ln(x) is n. The ordinary generating function for the sequence is