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John Machin
English mathematician
John Machin (born 1680—died 1751) was an English mathematician, notable for studies in finding the area of a circle. In 1706, he was the first to compute the value of the constant π to 100 decimal places. Machin’s formula for π was adapted by others, including Euler, to extend his result. Machin was a professor of astronomy at Gresham College, London. He worked extensively on the lunar theory but with little success. Elected a fellow of the Royal Society (London) in 1710, he was its secretary and contributed papers to the Society’s Philosophical Transactions. He was a member of the committee appointed in 1712 by the Royal Society to investigate the priority dispute between Isaac Newton and Gottfried Leibniz.
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