Math Problem of the Month

PROBLEM OF THE MONTH

SOLUTION

September, 2004

Bryant Wong discovered the following expression:

3 + 1 / (7 + 2^(-4)) + (5/8 - 6)^(-9) = 3.1415926533... He was one of the few people that realized that there are two different meanings of the symbol "-". It can be used either as a binary subtraction operator (ie. 3 - 1) or as a unary negation operator (ie. -5). He was able to combine both meanings to come up with an approximation that was one digit better than anyone else.