Pi : a biography of the world's most mysterious number

Includes index

Includes bibliographt (p. ) and references

1 What is π?
2 The history of π
3 Calculating the value of π
4 π enthusiasts
5 π curiosities
6 Applications of π
7 Paradox in π

We all learned that the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter is called pi and that the value of this algebraic symbol is roughly 3.14. What we weren't told, though, is that behind this seemingly mundane fact is a world of mystery, which has fascinated mathematicians from ancient times to the present. Simply put, pi is weird. Mathematicians call it a "transcendental number" because its value cannot be calculated by any combination of addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, and square root extraction.