Since the time of ancient Babylonia, the perplexing challenge of how to calculate the ratio between a circle's circumference and diameter has been of interest to humans. Pi has evoked the interest of mathematicians from ancient times to the present. Many have tried to find the end of this long string of digits. Pi has been the source of mystery and intrigue throughout the ages. In the world of today's supercomputers, this phenomenon continues to perplex the bytes and bits to exhaustion. The following will explore some of the more interesting historical tidbits about this most fascinating number.
             The name of the ancient mathematician who first discovered that the ratio between a circle's circumference and diameter is lost in time. The search for Pi began nearly 4000 years ago ancient Babylonia and Egypt (Beckman, 1971). Beckman theorizes that the first method for approximating Pi was to make a big circle and then use a piece of rope to measure the circumference and diameter of the circle. However, this is only speculation and we can only guess as to what the process looked like on that day. They found that the distance was a little more than three. They estimated it to be 1 1/8 or 3.125.
             One can fantasize about how the ancients first discovered Pi, but in reality, they are nothing but fantasies. Heath (1981) surmised that Beckman's fantasy is the result of a misinterpretation of the Greek work "harpedonaptae." This translates to " rope-stretchers" or "rope-fasteners." In this case, the translation of the word is correct, but the context was mistaken. The "rope-stretchers' were using rope to mark property limits and areas for temples. No one knows if they were making circles too, but they were using ropes to measure areas.
             One of the most famous pieces of papyrus contains an ancient estimation for Pi. The papyrus was dated around 1650 BC and was scribed by a man...