In the November 3, 2001 issue of the Mathematical Intelligencer Bob Palais wrote an article called “ is wrong!” In it Palais does not assert that we have miscalculated the value of , just that many mathematical formulas would be more elegant if we had chosen a different value for our named constant—he thinks that…
Tag: pi
A new continued fraction for pi
I love continued fractions. The golden ratio: The square root of 2: The base of the natural logarithm: Pi: In the most recent American Mathematical Monthly (December 2008) Thomas J. Pickett and Ann Coleman, in their note “Another Continued Fraction for ,” present the following beautiful continued fraction in which the terms down the diagonal…
David Richeson: Division by Zero 