On Jan 9, 10:31 pm, "Richard D. Moores" <rdmoo...@gmail.com> wrote: > Machin's Equation is > > 4 arctan (1/5) - arctan(1/239) = pi/4 > > Using Python 3.1 and the math module: > > > > >>> from math import atan, pi > >>> pi > 3.141592653589793 > >>> (4*atan(.2) - atan(1/239))*4 > 3.1415926535897936 > >>> (4*atan(.2) - atan(1/239))*4 == pi > False > >>> abs((4*atan(.2) - atan(1/239))*4) - pi < .000000000000000001 > False > >>> abs((4*atan(.2) - atan(1/239))*4) - pi < .0000000000000001 > False > >>> abs((4*atan(.2) - atan(1/239))*4) - pi < .000000000000001 > True > > Is there a way in Python 3.1 to calculate pi to greater accuracy using > Machin's Equation? Even to an arbitrary number of places?
Considering that my namesake calculated pi to 100 decimal places with the computational equipment available in 1706 (i.e. not much), I'd bet you London to a brick that Python (any version from 0.1 onwards) could be used to simulate his calculations to any reasonable number of places. So my answers to your questions are yes and yes. Suggestion: search_the_fantastic_web("machin pi python") -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list