William shanks biography

William Shanks and His 707 Digits of π

An annotated reading list

Rutherford and Shanks on π

William Rutherford was apparently Shanks's schoolmaster in the 1820s, when Shanks was a boy.

In the early 1840s Rutherford published a 208-decimal-place value of π; only 152 places were correct, but that was still a record at the time. A decade later, Rutherford and his former pupil Shanks collaborated on a 441-digit calculation, and Shanks went on alone to 530 decimal places.

William shanks biography

Just two months later Shanks extended the value to 608 places, but errors marred these figures from the start. After a hiatus of 20 years (and after the death of Rutherford), Shanks went on to 707 decimal places.

Rutherford, William.

1841. Investigation of a new and simple series, by which the ratio of the diameter of a circle to its circumference may easily be computed to any required degree of accuracy. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London 4:302.

A brief abstract discussing the merits of various arct