I want to tell you about William Shanks. Will was a computer. That’s what people who computed numbers were called before the other computers put them out of business. He spent 15 years calculating the first 707 digits of π. But he made a mistake on digit 528 in his 11th year on the task, rendering the following four years a tragic waste of time.
Will was a computer
Will was a computer
Will was a computer
I want to tell you about William Shanks. Will was a computer. That’s what people who computed numbers were called before the other computers put them out of business. He spent 15 years calculating the first 707 digits of π. But he made a mistake on digit 528 in his 11th year on the task, rendering the following four years a tragic waste of time.