This article gives a brief history of the analysis and computation of the mathematicalconstant π = 3.14159 . . ., including a number of the formulas that have been used tocompute π through the ages. Recent developments in this area are then discussed insome detail, including the recent computation of π to over six billion decimal digits usinghigh-order convergent algorithms, and a newly discovered scheme that permits arbitraryindividual hexadecimal digits of π to be computed.
