Author | Petr Beckmann |
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Country | United States |
Language | English |
Subject | Mathematics General Sciences History of mathematics |
Publisher | Golem Press (1st, 2nd ed.) St. Martin's Press (3rd ed.) Hippocrene Books (Reprint ed.) |
Publication date | 1970 |
Pages | 190 pages |
ISBN | 978-0-911762-07-5 |
OCLC | 99082 |
Part of a series of articles on the |
mathematical constant π |
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3.1415926535897932384626433... |
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A History of Pi (also titled A History of π) is a 1970 non-fiction book by Petr Beckmann that presents a layman's introduction to the concept of the mathematical constant pi (π).[1]
Beckmann was a Czechoslovakian who fled the Communist regime to go to the United States. His dislike of authority gives A History of Pi a style that belies its dry title. For example, his chapter on the era following the classical age of ancient Greece is titled "The Roman Pest";[2] he calls the Catholic Inquisition the act of "insane religious fanatic"; and he says that people who question public spending on scientific research are "intellectual cripples who drivel about 'too much technology' because technology has wounded them with the ultimate insult: 'They can't understand it any more.'"
Beckmann was a prolific scientific author who wrote several electrical engineering textbooks and non-technical works, founded Golem Press, which published most of his books, and published his own monthly newsletter, Access to Energy. In his self-published book Einstein Plus Two and in Internet flame wars, he claimed that the theory of relativity is incorrect.[3]