C Programming: How to calculate Pi to 4th decimal place? - c

Question

Okay, I want to make a C program that calculates pi accurately to 4th decimal place (3.1415...). I thought that double is more accurate than float type... Even with a trillion terms (n=trillion), the program cannot go past 3.1414... Can someone help? Am I using an incorrect data type to store my Pi value or is my loops incorrect?
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
int main(int argc, char** argv) {
int n;
while(1){
printf("Please enter how many terms (n) you wish to add to approximate Pi: ");
scanf("%d", &n);
if(n>=1)
break;
}
int x;
int count =2;
double negSum=0;
double posSum=0;
double pi = 0;
for(x=1;x<=n;x++){
do{
if(x%2==1){
posSum += (4.0)/(2.0*x-1.0);
count++;
}
else{
negSum += (-4.0)/(2.0*x-1.0);
count++;
}
pi = negSum + posSum;
}
while(pi>3.1414999 && pi<3.14160000);
}
//pi = negSum + posSum;
printf("The value of Pi using your approximation is %f, and the iteration was %d", pi, count);
return (EXIT_SUCCESS);
}
Here is some of my sample input/output:
Please enter how many terms (n) you wish to add to approximate Pi: 98713485
The value of Pi using your approximation is 3.141407, and the iteration was 98713488

Answer 1

The series you are using:
pi = 4(1 - 1/3 + 1/5 - 1/7 + 1/9 ...)
converges REALLY slowly to pi. It is the evaluation of a Taylor series for 4arctan(x) at x=1 and converges conditionally (it is right on edge of the interval of convergence). That's not going to be a very numerically efficient way to compute pi.
Beyond that, I haven't carefully checked your implementation, but some others have pointed out problems in the comments.

Answer 2

To compute Pi to 4th decimal place, you could use Gauss-Legendre algorithm:
#include <math.h>
#include <stdio.h>
int main(void) {
const double PI = acos(-1), SQRT2 = sqrt(2.0);
double a = 1, b = 1/SQRT2, t = .25, p = 1;
double an, piold, pi = 1, eps = 1e-6; /* use +2 decimal places */
int iteration_count = 0;
do {
++iteration_count;
an = .5 * (a + b);
b = sqrt(a * b);
t -= p * (a - an) * (a - an);
a = an;
p *= 2;
piold = pi;
pi = (a + b) * (a + b) / (4 * t);
} while (fabs(pi - piold) > eps);
printf("got pi=%f with rel. err=%.2e in %d iterations\n",
pi, (pi - PI) / PI, iteration_count);
return 0;
}
To run it:
$ gcc *.c -lm && ./a.out
Output
got pi=3.141593 with rel. err=2.83e-16 in 3 iterations