Abstract
The number π, or pi, has crossed the author’s life. But most of all, it has crossed the entire history of mathematics. It was known in Mesopotamia and in Egypt. It gave Archimedes the opportunity to elaborate the method of exhaustion. It has been studied both in its nature (we now know that it is a transcendental irrational number) and to search for methods to compute its decimal digits. Even today it is used as a test to assess the power of computers, yet it also affects the hearts of the poets. No number but pi has one day dedicated to it.
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Notes
Pi is called in Italian pi greco (literally, “greek P”), which sounds exactly like the author’s first name’s initial and surname, P. Greco [Translator’s note].
References
Beckmann, P.: A History of Pi. Hippocrene Books, New York (1990)
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Szymborska, W.: Wielka liczba. Czytelnik, Warsaw (1976) [English transl. In: Szymborska, W.: Miracle Fair. Trzeciak, J., transl. W. W. Norton & Company, New York (2002)]
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Greco, P. P for π . Lett Mat Int 5, 163–166 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40329-017-0188-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40329-017-0188-y