An Unbounded Spigot Algorithm for the Digits of Pi
Rabinowitz and Wagon (<i>American Mathematical Monthly</i> 102(3):195–203, 1995) present a <em>spigot algorithm</em> for computing the digits of π. A spigot algorithm yields its outputs incrementally, and does not reuse them after producing them. Their algorithm is inherently...
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Format: | Journal article |
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2015
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author | Gibbons, J |
author_facet | Gibbons, J |
author_sort | Gibbons, J |
collection | OXFORD |
description | Rabinowitz and Wagon (<i>American Mathematical Monthly</i> 102(3):195–203, 1995) present a <em>spigot algorithm</em> for computing the digits of π. A spigot algorithm yields its outputs incrementally, and does not reuse them after producing them. Their algorithm is inherently <em>bounded</em>; it requires a commitment in advance to the number of digits to be computed, and in fact might still produce an incorrect last few digits. We propose two <em>streaming algorithms</em> based on the same characterization of π, with the same incremental characteristics but without requiring the prior bound. |
first_indexed | 2024-03-06T20:27:53Z |
format | Journal article |
id | oxford-uuid:30023054-4642-47d7-a138-f9ad4fff9add |
institution | University of Oxford |
last_indexed | 2024-03-06T20:27:53Z |
publishDate | 2015 |
record_format | dspace |
spelling | oxford-uuid:30023054-4642-47d7-a138-f9ad4fff9add2022-03-26T12:59:00ZAn Unbounded Spigot Algorithm for the Digits of PiJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:30023054-4642-47d7-a138-f9ad4fff9addDepartment of Computer Science2015Gibbons, JRabinowitz and Wagon (<i>American Mathematical Monthly</i> 102(3):195–203, 1995) present a <em>spigot algorithm</em> for computing the digits of π. A spigot algorithm yields its outputs incrementally, and does not reuse them after producing them. Their algorithm is inherently <em>bounded</em>; it requires a commitment in advance to the number of digits to be computed, and in fact might still produce an incorrect last few digits. We propose two <em>streaming algorithms</em> based on the same characterization of π, with the same incremental characteristics but without requiring the prior bound. |
spellingShingle | Gibbons, J An Unbounded Spigot Algorithm for the Digits of Pi |
title | An Unbounded Spigot Algorithm for the Digits of Pi |
title_full | An Unbounded Spigot Algorithm for the Digits of Pi |
title_fullStr | An Unbounded Spigot Algorithm for the Digits of Pi |
title_full_unstemmed | An Unbounded Spigot Algorithm for the Digits of Pi |
title_short | An Unbounded Spigot Algorithm for the Digits of Pi |
title_sort | unbounded spigot algorithm for the digits of pi |
work_keys_str_mv | AT gibbonsj anunboundedspigotalgorithmforthedigitsofpi AT gibbonsj unboundedspigotalgorithmforthedigitsofpi |