William Shanks
(1812-1882)
Amateur calculator, school owner
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William Shanks (25 January 1812 – June 1882) was an English amateur mathematician. He is famous for his calculation of π to 707 decimal places in 1873, which was correct up to the first 527 places. The error was discovered in 1944 by D. F. Ferguson (using a mechanical desk calculator). Nevertheless, Shanks's approximation was the longest expansion of π until the advent of the digital electronic computer in the 1940s.
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| Born |
25 January 1812 Corsenside, city of Sunderland, County Durham, England
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| Died |
1 June 1882 (aged 70) Houghton-le-Spring, County Durham, England
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| Zodiac | Aquarius |
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