Anglesey-born William Jones was the first person to use the Greek letter π for the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter. But who was this little-known figure?In 1706, William Jones – a self-taught mathematician and one of Anglesey’s most famous sons – published his seminal work, Synopsis palmariorum matheseos, roughly translated as A summary of achievements in mathematics.It is a work of great historical interest because it is where the symbol π appears for the first time in scientific literature to denote the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter. Continue reading...
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