William Shanks

William Shanks 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.

Summary from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Dates from Wikidata (CC0)

Who was born first?

• William Shanks and Hermann von Fehling were born the same year
• William Shanks and Johann Gottfried Galle were born the same year
• William Shanks and Carl Christoffer Georg Andræ were born the same year
• William Shanks was born 1 year after Urbain Le Verrier
• William Shanks was born 1 year before Pierre Alphonse Laurent

Timeline

1. Urbain Le VerrierMarch 11, 1811 – September 23, 1877
2. Carl Christoffer Georg AndræOctober 14, 1812 – February 2, 1893
3. Hermann von FehlingJune 9, 1812 – July 1, 1885
4. Johann Gottfried GalleJune 9, 1812 – July 10, 1910
5. William Shanks (this page)January 25, 1812 – June 13, 1882
6. Pierre Alphonse LaurentJuly 18, 1813 – September 2, 1854

Related

• Albert EinsteinMarch 14, 1879 – April 18, 1955
• Isaac NewtonDecember 25, 1642 – March 20, 1727
• Johann Wolfgang von GoetheAugust 28, 1749 – March 22, 1832
• Galileo GalileiFebruary 15, 1564 – January 8, 1642
• Immanuel KantApril 22, 1724 – February 12, 1804
• René DescartesMarch 31, 1596 – February 11, 1650
• Marie CurieNovember 7, 1867 – July 4, 1934
• Archimedescirca 287 BC – 212 BC