The Discovery That Transformed Pi

Happy Pi Day!

References:

Special thanks to Alex Kontorovich, Professor of Mathematics at Rutgers University, and Distinguished Visiting Professor for the Public Dissemination of Mathematics National Museum of Mathematics MoMath for being part of this Pi Day video.

Special thanks to Patreon supporters: Jim Osmun, Tyson McDowell, Ludovic Robillard, jim buckmaster, fanime96, Juan Benet, Ruslan Khroma, Robert Blum, Richard Sundvall, Lee Redden, Vincent, Lyvann Ferrusca, Alfred Wallace, Arjun Chakroborty, Joar Wandborg, Clayton Greenwell, Pindex, Michael Krugman, Cy 'kkm' K'Nelson, Sam Lutfi, Ron Neal

Written by Derek Muller and Alex Kontorovich
Animation by Ivy Tello
Filmed by Derek Muller and Raquel Nuno
Edited by Derek Muller
Music by Jonny Hyman and Petr Lebedev

Thumbnail by Gianmarco Malandra and Karri Denise

[davidjohn]

Newton giving a lecture - "Hi guys, today we're talking about circles. The first thing you wanna do is invent calculus."

[ikeatable]

If it was anybody but Newton or Euler this would be one of the most iconic moments in mathematical history. The fact that this is one of the least interesting things that Newton discovered is completely insane.

[betterideas]

I really like this video because I didn’t understand 99% of the math, yet I was invested. It felt like something important was unraveling before me, and I was excited by that. And that’s the power of good storytelling.

[kimi]

Imagine having a career so illustrious that discovering a groundbreaking way to accurrately find pi is just one of your side achievements

[joshc]

Everyone is talking about how genius Newton is, but really, we need to shout out Archimedes for solving pi to an almost unnecessary level of precision 1800 years before Newton even came along

[jamesoversight]

Me during quarantine: Plays video games all day
Newton during quarantine: Creates groundbreaking mathematical solutions

[veritasium]

Also shout out to Indian mathematician and astronomer Madhava of Sangamagrama, who in the 14th century had a different infinite series for pi that converged as fast as Newton's

[mrunfunny]

Imagine working on something for 25 years only to find out that someone did it while playing with an equation during a pandemic.

[johnrains]

When Newton was at a professor at Cambridge, some of his students were in the club discussing what they thought the path of a body orbiting another body in space would be (e.g. the earth around the sun). One student returned to the university, and upon passing Bewton's office, he stopped in to discuss it. On asking Newton what he imagined the orbit would look like, Newton replied. It would be an ellipse. The student then asked what made him think it was an ellipse, Newton said. I do not think it, I know it. The student then asked how he knew it with such certainty, Newton said, "Why I've calculated it." He then searched through piles of paper on his desk until he came up with a scrap of paper that had the differential equation for an orbiting celestial body. He considered it so trivial that he didn't think it was worth publishing.

[harrokrog]

When this man said:“Luckily he just invented calculus“ like its not even that great. I realised what a genius he was. Sadly we dont learn about that in school

[ariearie]

Imagine spending 25 years of your life on something, and then a 23 year old kid comes along and beats you in a week while being in lockdown

[saddlepiggy]

“Luckily, Newton had just invented Calculus.”

Bruh chill out Newton leave some discoveries for the rest of us.

[pravinshingadia]

I studied maths as Uni but never had access to material like this. These videos explain complex ideas in a few minutes that took me weeks of reading in text books to understand.

[mathematicalbiologist]

There are two mistakes at 14:25 & 14:28.
Firstly there should be x^5/5 in place of x^4/4 and x^9/9 in place of x^9/8 and then 5×8 would be equal to 40 not 4×8 and 128×9 would be equal to 1152 not 128×8.
Just for the mathematical formalism. Else, the video was great.

[ruttolomeo]

Newton’s quarantine: boring. Let’s upgrade human understanding of mathematics.
My quarantine: homemade pizza.

[Bhatakti_Hawas]

Newton schooled himself on Brilliant during the bubonic plague quarantine

[chidieberendukwu]

Newton was like the final boss in a very difficult FPS game like Doom. I feel as soon as he decided to tackle pi, the Doom boss music started playing in the background.

[LetsGetIntoItMedia]

This video is an absolute masterpiece of storytelling. The beauty of discovery comes through so well. I watch this every few months, and I'm inspired every single time

[menohomo]

Hey Derek, i don't know who that guy is, but invite him as much as possible

[HSC]

Now I understand how my dog feels when I'm talking to it.