William Shanks

For the Scottish artist, see William Somerville Shanks.

William Shanks
Born(1812-01-25)25 January 1812
Corsenside, Northumberland, England
DiedJune 1882 (aged 70)
Houghton-le-Spring, County Durham, England
Scientific career
Fieldsschoolmaster, mathematician
InstitutionsSchool at Houghton-le-Spring

William Shanks (25 January 1812 – June 1882)[1] was an English amateur mathematician. He is famous for his calculation of π to 707 places in 1873, which was correct up to the first 527 places.[2] The error was discovered in 1944 by D. F. Ferguson (using a mechanical desk calculator).[2] Nevertheless, Shanks's approximation was the longest expansion of π until the advent of the digital electronic computer in the 1940s.

  1. ^ GRO Register of Deaths: JUN 1882 10a 252 HOUGHTON – William Shanks, aged 70
  2. ^ a b "William Shanks (1812 - 1882) - Biography". MacTutor History of Mathematics archive. University of St Andrews. July 2007. Archived from the original on 5 February 2021. Retrieved 22 January 2022.