Huygens and $\pi$
History and Overview
2025-11-06 v3
Abstract
The Dutch scientist Christiaan Huygens refined Archimedes' celebrated geometrical computation of to its highest point. Yet the rich content of his beautiful treatise \emph{De circuli magnitudine inventa} (1654) has apparently never been presented in modern form. Here we offer a detailed and contemporary development of several of his most striking results. We also make a historical conjecture concerning Archimedes' trisection figure.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2412.10880,
title = {Huygens and $\pi$},
author = {Mark B. Villarino and Joseph C. Varilly},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2412.10880},
year = {2025}
}
Comments
This is a greatly expanded and revised version of the original paper, with the addition of numerous (18) figures, and two appendicies, all carried out with the collaboration of a second author Joseph C. Varilly