# What famous ancient greek mathematician came up with an approximate value for pi by circumscribing and inscribing circles in and around regular polygons? – 2017

what famous ancient greek mathematician came up with an approximate value for pi by circumscribing and inscribing circles in and around regular polygons?

# Archimedes

The first calculation of pi was done by Archimedes of Syracuse (287–212 BC), one of the greatest mathematicians of the ancient world.

Archimedes approximated the area of a circle by using the Pythagorean Theorem to find the areas of two regular polygons: the polygon inscribed within the circle and the polygon within which the circle was circumscribed. Since the actual area of the circle lies between the areas of the inscribed and circumscribed polygons, the areas of the polygons gave upper and lower bounds for the area of the circle. Archimedes knew that he had not found the value of pi but only an approximation within those limits. In this way, Archimedes showed that pi is between 3 1/7 and 3 10/71.