John Wrench | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1911-10-13)October 13, 1911 |
| Died | February 27, 2009(2009-02-27) (aged 97) |
| Alma mater | University at Buffalo Yale University |
| Known for | Computing π |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Mathematics |
| Institutions | David Taylor Model Basin |
John William Wrench, Jr. (October 13, 1911 – February 27, 2009) was anAmericanmathematician who worked primarily innumerical analysis. He was a pioneer in usingcomputers for mathematical calculations, and is noted for work done withDaniel Shanks to calculate themathematical constantpi to 100,000 decimal places.
Wrench was born on October 13, 1911, inWestfield, New York, and grew up inHamburg, New York. He received aBAsumma cum laude inmathematics in 1933 and anMA in mathematics in 1935, both from theUniversity at Buffalo. He received hisPhD in mathematics in 1938 fromYale University.[1]His thesis was titledThe derivation of arctangent relations.[2]
Wrench died on February 27, 2009, ofpneumonia inFrederick, Maryland.[3]
Wrench started his career teaching atGeorge Washington University, but switched to doing research for theUnited States Navy duringWorld War II. His specialty for the Navy was developing high-speed computational methods, and he was a pioneer in using computers for mathematical calculations. He worked on projects involvingunderwater sound waves,underwater explosions,structural design,hydrodynamics,aerodynamics, anddata analysis. He became deputy head of the Applied Mathematics Laboratory at the Navy'sDavid Taylor Model Basin in 1953, and retired in 1974 as the head of the laboratory. He also had academic appointments atYale University,Wesleyan University,University of Maryland, College Park, andAmerican University.[3]
Wrench had a particular interest in computing the decimal digits ofπ, and performed some lengthy calculations even before the availability of computers.[3] During the period 1945–1956 Wrench and Levi B. Smith used adesk calculator to produce more and more digits of π, ending with 1160 places.[4]In 1961, Wrench andDaniel Shanks used anIBM 7090 computer to calculate π to 100,000 digits.[5]Harry Polachek had a printout of the 100,000 digits specially bound, inscribed in gold letters, and donated to theSmithsonian Institution.[6]
Wrench also calculated a number of othermathematical constants to high precision, for example theEuler–Mascheroni constant γ to 328 decimal places[7]andKhinchin's constant to 65 places.[8]
He was the editor of theJournal of Mathematics of Computation from 1959 to 1978.[9] Wrench was a member of theNational Academy of Sciences and theNational Research Council. He published more than 150 scientific papers.
| Part ofa series of articles on the |
| mathematical constantπ |
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| 3.1415926535897932384626433... |
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In order to assure the preservation of this document, I arranged for two clear copies of the output to be printed and specially bound (inscribed in gold letters)—one of which I donated to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.; the other I kept. The transfer to the Smithsonian took place at a small ceremony, attended by about 25 invited guests.
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