Thursday, April 26, 2007

BBP-Type Formulas

The BBP (named after Bailey-Borwein-Plouffe) is a formula for calculating `\pi` discovered by Simon Plouffe in 1995,
`\pi = \sum_(n=0)^\infty(\frac{4}{8n+1}-\frac{2}{8n+4}-\frac{1}{8n+5}-\frac{1}{8n+6})(1/(16))^n`.

Amazingly, this formula is a digit-extraction algorithm for `\pi` in base 16.

Following the discovery of this and related formulas, similar formulas in other bases were investigated. This class of formulas are now known as BBP-type formulas.

1 comment:

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