Gauss–Legendre algorithm: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 22:35, 15 July 2013

Revision as of 00:20, 29 July 2013

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The method is based on the individual work of [[Carl Friedrich Gauss]] (1777–1855) and [[Adrien-Marie Legendre]] (1752–1833) combined with modern algorithms for multiplication and [[square root]]s. It repeatedly replaces two numbers by their [[arithmetic mean|arithmetic]] and [[geometric mean]], in order to approximate their [[arithmetic-geometric mean]].

The version presented below is also known as the '''Gauss–Euler, Brent–Salamin (or Salamin–Brent) algorithm''';<ref>[[Richard Brent (scientist)|Brent, Richard]] ''Old and New AgorithmsAlgorithms for pi'', Letters to the Editor, Notices of the AMS 60(1), p. 7</ref> it was independently discovered in 1975 by [[Richard Brent (scientist)|Richard Brent]] and [[Eugene Salamin (mathematician)|Eugene Salamin]]. It was used to compute the first 206,158,430,000 decimal digits of π on September 18 to 20, 1999, and the results were checked with [[Borwein's algorithm]].

== Algorithm ==