The Ridiculous Way We Used To Calculate Pi

For thousands of years, mathematicians were calculating Pi the obvious but numerically inefficient way. Then Newton came along and changed the game. This video is sponsored by Brilliant. The first 314 people to sign up via https://brilliant.org/veritasium get 20% off a yearly subscription.

Happy Pi Day! (for a few days ago...)

References:
Arndt, J., & Haenel, C. (2001). Pi-unleashed. Springer Science & Business Media — https://ve42.co/Arndt2001

Dunham, W. (1990). Journey through genius: The great theorems of mathematics. Wiley — https://ve42.co/Dunham1990

Borwein, J. M. (2014). The Life of π: From Archimedes to ENIAC and Beyond. In From Alexandria, Through Baghdad (pp. 531-561). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg — https://ve42.co/Borwein2012

Special thanks to Alex Kontorovich, Professor of Mathematics at Rutgers University, and Distinguished Visiting Professor for the Public Dissemination of Mathematics National Museum of Mathematics MoMath for being part of this Pi Day video.

Special thanks to Patreon supporters: Jim Osmun, Tyson McDowell, Ludovic Robillard, jim buckmaster, fanime96, Juan Benet, Ruslan Khroma, Robert Blum, Richard Sundvall, Lee Redden, Vincent, Lyvann Ferrusca, Alfred Wallace, Arjun Chakroborty, Joar Wandborg, Clayton Greenwell, Pindex, Michael Krugman, Cy 'kkm' K'Nelson, Sam Lutfi, Ron Neal

Written by Derek Muller and Alex Kontorovich
Animation by Ivan Tello
Filmed by Derek Muller and Raquel Nuno
Edited by Derek Muller
Music by Jonny Hyman and Petr Lebedev

Additional Music from https://epidemicsound.com "Particle Emission", "Into the Forest", "Stavselet", "Face of the Earth", "Firefly in a Fairytale"

Thumbnail by Gianmarco Malandra and Karri Denise