The credit for the first accurate calculation of pi (π) goes to Archimedes of Syracuse, a Greek mathematician who lived around 287–212 BC. Archimedes approximated pi by inscribing and circumscribing polygons around a circle and calculating their perimeters, which gave him upper and lower bounds for pi. He determined that pi lies between 3 1/7 (approximately 3.14285) and 3 10/71 (approximately 3.14084), which was a remarkably accurate estimate for his time
. Although the concept of pi was known earlier—Babylonians and Egyptians had rough approximations around 1900–1650 BC—Archimedes was the first to develop a systematic mathematical method to approximate pi with precision
. His work laid the foundation for future mathematicians to refine the value of pi. The symbol π itself was introduced much later, in the early 1700s by William Jones and popularized by Leonhard Euler
. But the discovery and calculation of pi as a mathematical constant is primarily attributed to Archimedes.
