An amazing one-minute bit of fun at the interactive prompt

[Steven D'Aprano]

On Sun, 20 Feb 2011 00:08:58 -0800, Raymond Hettinger wrote:

>>>> e = 10.0 ** -7; n = 0; z = c = complex(-0.75, e) 
>>>> while abs(z) < 2.0:
> 	    n += 1
> 	    z = z * z + c
> 
>>>> n * e
> 3.1415926

Absolutely brilliant! That alone justifies including complex as a built-
in type. *wink*


> Compute π ± e by counting Mandlebrot set iterations :-)

eps would be a better name than e. As I read it, π ± e would be some 
number between 0.423310825130748 and 5.859874482048838, which isn't a 
terribly impressive approximation :)

BTW, I see the symbol in your post as π (pi), not ð (lowercase eth).



-- 
Steven