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| 1 | +# Liu Hui's π Algorithm |
| 2 | + |
| 3 | +Liu Hui remarked in his commentary to The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art, |
| 4 | +that the ratio of the circumference of an inscribed hexagon to the diameter of |
| 5 | +the circle was `three`, hence `π` must be greater than three. He went on to provide |
| 6 | +a detailed step-by-step description of an iterative algorithm to calculate `π` to |
| 7 | +any required accuracy based on bisecting polygons; he calculated `π` to |
| 8 | +between `3.141024` and `3.142708` with a 96-gon; he suggested that `3.14` was |
| 9 | +a good enough approximation, and expressed `π` as `157/50`; he admitted that |
| 10 | +this number was a bit small. Later he invented an ingenious quick method to |
| 11 | +improve on it, and obtained `π ≈ 3.1416` with only a 96-gon, with an accuracy |
| 12 | +comparable to that from a 1536-gon. His most important contribution in this |
| 13 | +area was his simple iterative `π` algorithm. |
| 14 | + |
| 15 | +## Area of a circle |
| 16 | + |
| 17 | +Liu Hui argued: |
| 18 | + |
| 19 | +> Multiply one side of a hexagon by the radius (of its |
| 20 | +circumcircle), then multiply this by three, to yield the |
| 21 | +area of a dodecagon; if we cut a hexagon into a |
| 22 | +dodecagon, multiply its side by its radius, then again |
| 23 | +multiply by six, we get the area of a 24-gon; the finer |
| 24 | +we cut, the smaller the loss with respect to the area |
| 25 | +of circle, thus with further cut after cut, the area of |
| 26 | +the resulting polygon will coincide and become one with |
| 27 | +the circle; there will be no loss |
| 28 | + |
| 29 | + |
| 30 | + |
| 31 | +Liu Hui's method of calculating the area of a circle. |
| 32 | + |
| 33 | +Further, Liu Hui proved that the area of a circle is half of its circumference |
| 34 | +multiplied by its radius. He said: |
| 35 | + |
| 36 | +> Between a polygon and a circle, there is excess radius. Multiply the excess |
| 37 | +radius by a side of the polygon. The resulting area exceeds the boundary of |
| 38 | +the circle |
| 39 | + |
| 40 | +In the diagram `d = excess radius`. Multiplying `d` by one side results in |
| 41 | +oblong `ABCD` which exceeds the boundary of the circle. If a side of the polygon |
| 42 | +is small (i.e. there is a very large number of sides), then the excess radius |
| 43 | +will be small, hence excess area will be small. |
| 44 | + |
| 45 | +> Multiply the side of a polygon by its radius, and the area doubles; |
| 46 | +hence multiply half the circumference by the radius to yield the area of circle. |
| 47 | + |
| 48 | + |
| 49 | + |
| 50 | +The area within a circle is equal to the radius multiplied by half the |
| 51 | +circumference, or `A = r x C/2 = r x r x π`. |
| 52 | + |
| 53 | +## Iterative algorithm |
| 54 | + |
| 55 | +Liu Hui began with an inscribed hexagon. Let `M` be the length of one side `AB` of |
| 56 | +hexagon, `r` is the radius of circle. |
| 57 | + |
| 58 | + |
| 59 | + |
| 60 | +Bisect `AB` with line `OPC`, `AC` becomes one side of dodecagon (12-gon), let |
| 61 | +its length be `m`. Let the length of `PC` be `j` and the length of `OP` be `G`. |
| 62 | + |
| 63 | +`AOP`, `APC` are two right angle triangles. Liu Hui used |
| 64 | +the [Gou Gu](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pythagorean_theorem) (Pythagorean theorem) |
| 65 | +theorem repetitively: |
| 66 | + |
| 67 | + |
| 68 | + |
| 69 | + |
| 70 | + |
| 71 | + |
| 72 | + |
| 73 | + |
| 74 | + |
| 75 | + |
| 76 | + |
| 77 | + |
| 78 | + |
| 79 | + |
| 80 | + |
| 81 | + |
| 82 | +From here, there is now a technique to determine `m` from `M`, which gives the |
| 83 | +side length for a polygon with twice the number of edges. Starting with a |
| 84 | +hexagon, Liu Hui could determine the side length of a dodecagon using this |
| 85 | +formula. Then continue repetitively to determine the side length of a |
| 86 | +24-gon given the side length of a dodecagon. He could do this recursively as |
| 87 | +many times as necessary. Knowing how to determine the area of these polygons, |
| 88 | +Liu Hui could then approximate `π`. |
| 89 | + |
| 90 | +## References |
| 91 | + |
| 92 | +- [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liu_Hui%27s_%CF%80_algorithm) |
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