How Did Zu Chongzhi Work Out π?
祖沖之是如何推算出圓周率的?
紅人自畫像
我生活在中國南朝時期。我可是個數學明星哦,因為我精確地推算出圓周率,在當時這算是世界領先水平了。
I lived in the Southern Dynasty of ancient China. Well, I was sort of a maths star at that time, because I calculated the accurate figure of π ahead of the whole world.
超級訪問
古古的數學一直很差。唉!真讓她頭疼。為什么祖沖之能在那么早的年代就推算出圓周率呢?他是不是智商超凡?古古懷著強烈的好奇心,來到了南朝。
Gugu was very poor at maths. It's a real headache! How could Zu Chongzhi have calculated π as early as the Southern Dynasty? Was it because he had an extraordinarily high IQ? With this question in mind, Gugu returned to the Southern Dynasty.
(G=Gugu Z=Zu Chongzhi)
G: How do you do, Mr. Zu? I’ve heard about you long ago.
Z: How do you do, young man? Nice to meet you.
G: Nice to meet you, too. How did you calculate π? I’m quite curious about it.
Z: I used the cyclotomic method. It’s very complicated. Do you want to learn that?
G: Oh, no. I’d rather not. I’m no mathematician materical.
Z: Haw –haw … I didn’t think that there’s anyone who could not fall in love with maths.
G: Did you invent that method?
Z: No, I didn’t. I learned it from another famous mathematician—Liu Hui.
G: But he didn’t come up with a figure as accurate as yours.
Z: No. I found that there’s something wrong with his conclusion, so I improved it.
G: And so you’ve outdone your master.
Z: For that it took me a lot of effort.
G: I can imagine that. It must be a hard job!
Z: Truly it is. I’ve calculated it for like millions of times before I figured it out. Ugh…
G: You surely have done a great job!
古古 : 先生,您好,我早就聽說您的鼎鼎大名了。
祖沖之: 你好,年輕人。見到你很高興。
古古 : 我也很高興見到您。您是怎樣推算出圓周率的?我很想知道。
祖沖之: 我采用的是割圓的辦法。十分復雜,你要學嗎?
古古 : 唔,不。我不是學數學的料,還是不要學了吧。
祖沖之: 哈哈,當今世界居然還有不喜歡數學的人。
古古 : 那您的方法是獨創的嗎?
祖沖之: 不是,我是從著名的數學家劉徽那里學來的。
古古 : 可是他沒有您算得精確啊。
祖沖之: 是的,我發現劉徽的結論不對,所以我把他的方法改進了一下。
古古 : 青出于藍勝于藍。
祖沖之: 但是這個過程也耗費了我大量的精力。
古古 : 可以想象!當數學家好辛苦。
祖沖之: 是呀!我運算了好幾百萬次呢。好累。
古古 : 厲害!厲害!真佩服您呀!