Abraham Sharp

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Abraham Sharp

1651-1742

English astronomer and mathematician who in 1705 calculated the value of π to an unprecedented 72 decimal places. Sharp was the first to use the new tools of calculus, recently introduced by Isaac Newton, to perform such calculations. His tremendous achievement surpassed the previous record by 27 decimal places. Sharp's record, however, was broken the following year John Machin, who calculated 100 digits of pi.