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MAA Writing Awards
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Of Calculations Past and Present: The Archimedean Algorithm
Year of Award: 1986
Award: Chauvenet Prize
Publication Information: The American Mathematical Monthly, vol. 90, (1983) pp. 17-35
Summary: This article traces the evolution of Archimedes’ method, from its geometrical beginning as a means to approximate pi to its modern version as an analytical technique for evaluating inverse circular and inverse hyperbolic functions.
About the Author: (from The American Mathematical Monthly, vol. 90 (1983)) George Miel was born in Paris and immigrated to the Unites States as a teenager. He worked for the Apollo Space Program and for industry abroad. After receiving his Ph.D. at the University of Wyoming in 1976, he held a visiting position for the next two years at the University of Calgary. He then came to the University of Nevada in Las Vegas where he is now Associate Professor. Occasionally he would rather be out scaling wild mountain faces than be in his office writing papers on numerical analysis.