About Circle’s Measurements――关于圆度量.docVIP

About Circle’s Measurements――关于圆度量 　　石子入水后浑然天成的圆形波纹，天体运行时近似圆形的轨迹，清晨冉冉升起的朝阳，遥远天际悬挂的那轮明月…… 圆，在生活中无处不在。 　　 　　The Circle-Measurements 　　By The Ancient Chinese Mathematicians 　　As we know that the ancient Chinese employed for π the value 3.14, or that they counted the circumference of a circle compared with diameter as 3 to 1. The value of π was used in China as early at least as in the 12th century B.C. But the Chinese did not in any way remain satisfied with this rough value of π. Ever since then great efforts have been made to improve its accuracy and brilliant achievements obtained. 　　Among the earliest Chinese circle-squares mention must be made of Zhang Heng in the first place. Zhang was a famous scholar of the Han Dynasty. Zhang’s calculation of the circle, however, has been lost, although his value of π is given in a commentary on the Arithmetic in Nine Sections in the form that the ratio of the square of the circular circumference to that of the perimeter of the circumscribed square is 5 to 8. This is equivalent to taking π at . 　　In the period of the Three Kingdoms there lived another mathematician Liu Hui, in whose commentaries on the Arithmetic in Nine Sections we find the particulars of his quadrature of the circle. 　　Liu Hui starts, in his measurement of the circle, with a hexagon inscribed in a circle the diameter of which is taken as two feet. Each side of the hexagon is equal to half the circular diameter. On this hexagon Liu Hui describes a dodecagon by doubling the number of its sides, and then doubles again the sides and describes a 24-gon, and so on. In this way the areas of the polygons thus formed gradually approach to the area of the circle, the difference diminishing step by step. 　　Two centuries after Liu Hui, there appeared another and more distinguished circle?Csquarer, Zu Chongzhi. He contrived a more effective method of proceeding than his predecessors had followed, and obtained the accurate value for π. It was . From this it is se