In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
"hossam" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> I'm studying python newly and have an exercise that is difficult for me as a
> beginner.Here it is :
> "Write a program that approximates the value of pi by summing the terms of
> this series:
> 4/1-4/3+4/5-4/7+4/9-4/11+.... The program should prompt the user for n, the
> number of terms to sum and then output the sum of the first n terms of this
> series."
>
> any help would be appreciated.
>
> benni
The series you're describing is basically expanding the Taylor series
for 4 * atan(1), where
i
oo -1
atan(1) = SUM ------
i = 0 2i + 1
(or in LaTeX: \sum_{i=0}^{\infty}\frac{-1^i}{2i+1})
To enumerate the terms of this series, you can treat i as a counter, and
compute the numerator and denominator either directly or from their
previous values. The sum can be accumulated into a separate variable.
So, for instance,
. sum = 0. ; num = 1. ; den = 1.
. for i in xrange(n):
. sum += num / den
. num = -num
. den += 2
.
. pi = 4 * sum # approximately...
Keep in mind that this approximation for atan(1) converges very slowly,
so you will need to do quite a lot of terms before it will converge (you
need about a thousand terms to get 2 significant figures after the
decimal point). You might have better results using Machin's formula,
atan(1) = 4 * atan(1/5) - atan(1/239)
Or, pi = 16 * atan(1/5) - 4 * atan(1/239). The Taylor series will
converge more quickly for atan(1/5) and atan(1/239).
(LaTeX: \mathrm{atan}(x) = \sum_{i=0}^\infty\frac{(-1^i)x^i}{2i+1})
Cheers,
-M
--
Michael J. Fromberger | Lecturer, Dept. of Computer Science
http://www.dartmouth.edu/~sting/ | Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, USA
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