04-10-2016, 08:58 AM
Pi to 15 digits was first found in the 1590's. There was a flurry of publications around then, after a new technique of "approximating the polygon" allowed mathematicians to push the number of known digits further and further. That was towards the end of Dee's life, he returned to England at the end of the 1580's.
And don't try to kid me that Dee independently calculated Pi to 15 digits a couple of decades before the new technique was found - if he had, he'd have shouted the fact to the sky to gain patronage. He wasn't a skilled mathematician by any account, he was a polymath.
And don't try to kid me that Dee independently calculated Pi to 15 digits a couple of decades before the new technique was found - if he had, he'd have shouted the fact to the sky to gain patronage. He wasn't a skilled mathematician by any account, he was a polymath.