A121500 Minimal polygon values for a certain polygon problem leading to an approximation of Pi.

3, 4, 4, 5, 6, 6, 7, 7, 8, 9, 9, 10, 11, 12, 12, 13, 14, 14, 15, 16, 16, 17, 18, 19, 19, 20, 21, 21, 22, 23, 23, 24, 25, 26, 26, 27, 28, 28, 29, 30, 30, 31, 32, 33, 33, 34, 35, 35, 36, 37, 38, 38, 39, 40, 40, 41, 42, 42

Offset: 3

Author

Wolfdieter Lang, Aug 16 2006

Keywords

• nonn
• easy

Comments

For a regular n-gon inscribed in a unit circle (area Pi), the arithmetic mean of the areas of this n-gon with a regular circumscribed m-gon is nearest to Pi for m=a(n).

This exercise was inspired by K. R. Popper's remark on sqrt(2)+sqrt(3) which approximates Pi with 0.15% relative error. See the Popper reference under A121503.

Examples

			n=8, a(8)=6: (Fin(8)+Fout(6))/2 = sqrt(2) + sqrt(3) has relative error 0.001487 (rounded). All other circumscribed m-gons with inscribed octagon lead to a larger relative error.
n=21, a(21)=15: (Fin(21)+Fout(15))/2 = 3.14163887818241 (maple10, 15 digits) leads to a relative error 0.0000147 (rounded).
		

Crossrefs

Cf. A121501 (positions n where relative errors decrease).

Formula

a(n) = min(abs(E(n,m)),m >= 3), n>=3 (checked for m=3..3+500), with E(n,m):= ((Fin(n)+Fout(m))/2-Pi)/Pi), where Fin(n):=(n/2)*sin(2*Pi/n) and Fout(m):= m*tan(Pi/m). Fin(n) is the area of the regular n-gon inscribed in the unit circle. Fout(n) is the area of a regular n-gon circumscribing the unit circle.