Topic

The calculation of π to an insane number of digits is something that has an interesting history.  This talk will look at historic algorithms for the calculation π and implementation of the algorithms in Python.  And we will meditate upon how lucky we are to have computers to do the calculation. In doing this we will see things in the Python standard library that make it possible to calculate the crazy values needed in modern algorithms (e.g. one over a factorial cubed). The final demonstration is the calculation of π to 100 significant digits.