A History of Pi
 Book cover of A History of Pi (3rd ed.) | |
| Author | Petr Beckmann |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Subject | Mathematics General Sciences History of mathematics |
| Publisher | Golem Press (1st, 2nd ed.) St. Martin's Press (3rd ed.) Hippocrene Books (Reprint ed.) |
Publication date | 1970 |
| Publication place | United States |
| Pages | 190 pages |
| ISBN | 978-0-911762-07-5 |
| OCLC | 99082 |
| Part of a series of articles on the |
| mathematical constant π |
|---|
| 3.1415926535897932384626433... |
| Uses |
| Properties |
| Value |
| People |
| History |
| In culture |
| Related topics |
A History of Pi (also titled A History of π) is a 1970 non-fiction book by Petr Beckmann that presents a layman's introduction to the concept of the mathematical constant pi (π).[1]
Author
[edit]Beckmann was a Czechoslovakian who fled the Communist regime to go to the United States. His dislike of authority gives A History of Pi a style that belies its dry title. For example, his chapter on the era following the classical age of ancient Greece is titled "The Roman Pest";[2] he calls the Catholic Inquisition the act of "insane religious fanatic"; and he says that people who question public spending on scientific research are "intellectual cripples who drivel about 'too much technology' because technology has wounded them with the ultimate insult: 'They can't understand it any more.'"
Beckmann was a prolific scientific author who wrote several electrical engineering textbooks and non-technical works, founded Golem Press, which published most of his books, and published his own monthly newsletter, Access to Energy. In his self-published book Einstein Plus Two and in Internet flame wars, he claimed that the theory of relativity is incorrect.[3]
Bibliography
[edit]A History of Pi was originally published as A History of π in 1970 by Golem Press. This edition did not cover any approximations of π calculated after 1946. A second edition, printed in 1971, added material on the calculation of π by electronic computers, but still contained historical and mathematical errors, such as an incorrect proof that there exist infinitely many prime numbers.[4] A third edition was published as A History of Pi in 1976 by St. Martin's Press. It was published as A History of Pi by Hippocrene Books in 1990.[5] The title is given as A History of Pi by both Amazon[6] and by WorldCat.[7]
- Beckmann, Petr (1970), A History of π (1st ed.), Golem Press, p. 190, ISBN 0-911762-07-8
- Beckmann, Petr (1971-01-01), A History of π (2nd ed.), Golem Press, p. 196, ISBN 0-911762-12-4
- Beckmann, Petr (1976-07-15), A History of Pi (3rd ed.), St. Martin's Press, p. 208, ISBN 0-312-38185-9
- Beckmann, Petr (1977), A History of π (4th ed.), Golem Press, p. 202, ISBN 0-911762-18-3
- Beckmann, Petr (1982), A History of π (5th ed.), Golem Press, p. 202, ISBN 0-911762-18-3
- Beckmann, Petr (1990-06-01), A History of Pi (Reprint ed.), Hippocrene Books, p. 200, ISBN 0-88029-418-3
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ Drum, Kevin (December 2, 1996). "A History of Pi, by Petr Beckman". Archived from the original on July 4, 2007. Retrieved April 13, 2014.
- ^ Thoreau, Book Recommendation: A History of Pi Archived 2011-07-16 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Farrell, John (2000-07-06). "Did Einstein cheat?". Salon. Retrieved 2022-03-25.
- ^ Gould, Henry W. (1974). "Review of A History of π". Mathematics of Computation. 28 (125): 325–327. doi:10.2307/2005843. ISSN 0025-5718. JSTOR 2005843.
- ^ "A History of PI by Petr Beckmann ", GoodReads
- ^ ASIN 0312381859
- ^ OCLC 472118858