Pi
| Value | 3.141592653589793 |
| Digits | The first 10,000 decimals → |
| Status | Exact by definition: no uncertainty |
| Source | Mathematical constant (a definition, not a measurement), given to double precision |
| Categories | Mathematical |
Learning zone
π is defined, not measured, so it has no uncertainty; the value stored here is the nearest IEEE-754 double to the true constant, correct to about 16 significant figures, which is more than enough to compute the circumference of the observable universe to within the width of a hydrogen atom. Archimedes squeezed it between 223/71 and 22/7 around 250 BC using inscribed and circumscribed 96-gons, and the method he invented, trap the answer between two computable bounds and tighten, is the ancestor of the whole idea of a limit.
Johann Lambert proved π irrational in 1761, but the decisive result came in 1882, when Ferdinand von Lindemann proved it transcendental: it satisfies no polynomial equation with rational coefficients. That single theorem closed a problem that had been open for 2000 years. Squaring the circle (constructing, with compass and straightedge alone, a square equal in area to a given circle) requires constructing √π, and constructible numbers are all algebraic. Lindemann's proof did not merely show that nobody had yet succeeded; it showed that nobody ever could, and the Paris Academy had already stopped accepting submissions on the problem by then out of sheer exhaustion.
Annulus Area (Ring)
Arc Length
Area of a Circle
Circumference of a Circle
Cone Frustum Volume (Truncated Cone)
Cone Lateral Surface Area
Cone Total Surface Area
Cone Volume
Cylinder Lateral Surface Area
Cylinder Surface Area
Cylinder Volume
Disc Clutch Torque (Uniform Wear)
Ellipse Area
Ellipse Perimeter (Ramanujan Approximation)
Ellipsoid Volume
Helical Spring Shear Stress (with the Wahl Factor)
Hemisphere Total Surface Area
Hemisphere Volume
Hertzian Contact Pressure, Sphere on a Flat
Petroff's Equation (Journal Bearing Friction Torque)
Power Screw Lowering Torque and Self-Locking
Power Screw Raising Torque (Square Thread)
Regular Polygon Area (from Side Length)
Speed in Circular Motion (v = 2πr/T)
Sphere Surface Area
Sphere Volume
Spherical Cap Volume
Thread Tensile Stress Area
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formula.expert. (2026, November 8). Pi. https://formula.expert/constants/pi