Scientists from India have revealed a new way to determine pi, which should make it easier to extract pi from phenomena such as the quantum scattering of high-energy particles.
Arnab Saha and Aninda Sinha of the Centre for High Energy Physics (CHEP) published this research in Physical Review Letters. According to IISc, “The new formula under a certain limit closely mirrors the 15th-century representation of pi by Indian mathematician Sangamagrama Madhava.”
Creating a model with fewer parameters to explain particle interactions in high-energy physics was the original goal of the scientists. On the other hand, they discovered an intriguing new angle on pi. A “series” is the mathematical notation for a set of related variables, such as the components of pi. It has been difficult to find the optimal parameter combination that approximatively represents pi.
A series found by Sinha and Saha enables fast pi approximation, which can be used in calculations like quantum scattering, as emphasised by IISc. Previous mathematicians and physicists needed to have the resources that Sinha mentioned as being necessary to find this series. Despite their theoretical nature, the results may have future practical uses.
