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The Bible and Pi
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 August 2016
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It is widely, almost universally, believed that the Hebrew Bible gives the value of π as the crude approximation 3, a value much less accurate than those adopted by other ancient civilisations, such as the Babylonian, the Egyptian and the Chinese. In the English of the Authorised Version, the biblical source goes:
- ‘And he made a molten sea, ten cubits from one brim to the
- other: it was round all about, and his [i.e. its] height was five
- cubits: and a line of thirty cubits did compass it round about.’
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- Copyright © The Mathematical Association 1998
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