Back ويليام شانكس Arabic ویلیام شانکس AZB William Shanks Catalan William Shanks German William Shanks Esperanto William Shanks Spanish William Shanks (mathématicien) French William Shanks HT Ուիլյամ Շենքս Armenian William Shanks ID
William Shanks | |
|---|---|
| Born | 25 January 1812 Corsenside, Northumberland, England |
| Died | June 1882 (aged 70) Houghton-le-Spring, County Durham, England |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | schoolmaster, mathematician |
| Institutions | School at Houghton-le-Spring |
William Shanks (25 January 1812 – June 1882)[1] was an English amateur mathematician. He is famous for his calculation of π to 707 places in 1873, which was correct up to the first 527 places.[2] The error was discovered in 1944 by D. F. Ferguson (using a mechanical desk calculator).[2] Nevertheless, Shanks's approximation was the longest expansion of π until the advent of the digital electronic computer in the 1940s.
- ^ GRO Register of Deaths: JUN 1882 10a 252 HOUGHTON – William Shanks, aged 70
- ^ a b "William Shanks (1812 - 1882) - Biography". MacTutor History of Mathematics archive. University of St Andrews. July 2007. Archived from the original on 5 February 2021. Retrieved 22 January 2022.