Check Machin-like Formulae with Arbitrary-Precision Arithmetic

Happy New Year to all of you! Let us start the year with something for your inner maths nerd 🙂

Rosetta Stone
Source: Wikimedia

For those of you who don’t yet know Rosetta Code: it is a really cool site where you can find lots of interesting code examples in all kinds of different languages for many different tasks. Of course R is also present big time (at the time of writing 426 code examples!): Rosetta Code for R.

The name of the site is inspired by the famous Rosetta Stone of Ancient Egypt which is inscribed with three different versions of the same text: in Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, Demotic script, and Ancient Greek script which proved invaluable in deciphering Egyptian hieroglyphs and thereby opening the window into ancient Egyptian history.

Now, a few days ago I again added an example (for the other tasks I solved I will write more posts in the future, so stay tuned!). The task is to verify the correctness of Machin-like formulae using exact arithmetic.

A little bit of mathematical background is in order, so Wikipedia to the rescue:

Machin-like formulae are a popular technique for computing \pi to a large number of digits. They are generalizations of John Machin]s formula from 1706:

    \[\frac{\pi}{4} = 4 \arctan \frac{1}{5} - \arctan \frac{1}{239}\]

which he used to compute \pi to 100 decimal places.

Machin-like formulae have the form

    \[c_0 \frac{\pi}{4} = \sum_{n=1}^N c_n \arctan \frac{a_n}{b_n}\]

where a_n and b_n are positive integers such that a_n < b_n, c_n is a signed non-zero integer, and c_0 is a positive integer.

The exact task is to verify that the following Machin-like formulae are correct by calculating the value of tan (right hand side) for each equation using exact arithmetic and showing they equal one:

{\pi\over4} = \arctan{1\over2} + \arctan{1\over3}
{\pi\over4} = 2 \arctan{1\over3} + \arctan{1\over7}
{\pi\over4} = 4 \arctan{1\over5} - \arctan{1\over239}
{\pi\over4} = 5 \arctan{1\over7} + 2 \arctan{3\over79}
{\pi\over4} = 5 \arctan{29\over278} + 7 \arctan{3\over79}
{\pi\over4} = \arctan{1\over2} + \arctan{1\over5} + \arctan{1\over8}
{\pi\over4} = 4 \arctan{1\over5} - \arctan{1\over70} + \arctan{1\over99}
{\pi\over4} = 5 \arctan{1\over7} + 4 \arctan{1\over53} + 2 \arctan{1\over4443}
{\pi\over4} = 6 \arctan{1\over8} + 2 \arctan{1\over57} + \arctan{1\over239}
{\pi\over4} = 8 \arctan{1\over10} - \arctan{1\over239} - 4 \arctan{1\over515}
{\pi\over4} = 12 \arctan{1\over18} + 8 \arctan{1\over57} - 5 \arctan{1\over239}
{\pi\over4} = 16 \arctan{1\over21} + 3 \arctan{1\over239} + 4 \arctan{3\over1042}
{\pi\over4} = 22 \arctan{1\over28} + 2 \arctan{1\over443} - 5 \arctan{1\over1393} - 10 \arctan{1\over11018}
{\pi\over4} = 22 \arctan{1\over38} + 17 \arctan{7\over601} + 10 \arctan{7\over8149}
{\pi\over4} = 44 \arctan{1\over57} + 7 \arctan{1\over239} - 12 \arctan{1\over682} + 24 \arctan{1\over12943}

The same should be done for the last and most complicated case…

{\pi\over4} = 88 \arctan{1\over172} + 51 \arctan{1\over239} + 32 \arctan{1\over682} + 44 \arctan{1\over5357} + 68 \arctan{1\over12943}

… but it should be confirmed that the following, slightly changed, formula is incorrect by showing tan (right hand side) is not one:

{\pi\over4} = 88 \arctan{1\over172} + 51 \arctan{1\over239} + 32 \arctan{1\over682} + 44 \arctan{1\over5357} + 68 \arctan{1\over12944}

This is what I contributed to Rosetta Code:

library(Rmpfr)
prec <- 1000 # precision in bits
`%:%` <- function(e1, e2) '/'(mpfr(e1, prec), mpfr(e2, prec)) # operator %:% for high precision division
# function for checking identity of tan of expression and 1, making use of high precision division operator %:%
tanident_1 <- function(x) identical(round(tan(eval(parse(text = gsub("/", "%:%", deparse(substitute(x)))))), (prec/10)), mpfr(1, prec))
 
tanident_1( 1*atan(1/2)    +  1*atan(1/3) )
## [1] TRUE
tanident_1( 2*atan(1/3)    +  1*atan(1/7))
## [1] TRUE
tanident_1( 4*atan(1/5)    + -1*atan(1/239))
## [1] TRUE
tanident_1( 5*atan(1/7)    +  2*atan(3/79))
## [1] TRUE
tanident_1( 5*atan(29/278) +  7*atan(3/79))
## [1] TRUE
tanident_1( 1*atan(1/2)    +  1*atan(1/5)   +   1*atan(1/8) )
## [1] TRUE
tanident_1( 4*atan(1/5)    + -1*atan(1/70)  +   1*atan(1/99) )
## [1] TRUE
tanident_1( 5*atan(1/7)    +  4*atan(1/53)  +   2*atan(1/4443))
## [1] TRUE
tanident_1( 6*atan(1/8)    +  2*atan(1/57)  +   1*atan(1/239))
## [1] TRUE
tanident_1( 8*atan(1/10)   + -1*atan(1/239) +  -4*atan(1/515))
## [1] TRUE
tanident_1(12*atan(1/18)   +  8*atan(1/57)  +  -5*atan(1/239))
## [1] TRUE
tanident_1(16*atan(1/21)   +  3*atan(1/239) +   4*atan(3/1042))
## [1] TRUE
tanident_1(22*atan(1/28)   +  2*atan(1/443) +  -5*atan(1/1393) + -10*atan(1/11018))
## [1] TRUE
tanident_1(22*atan(1/38)   + 17*atan(7/601) +  10*atan(7/8149))
## [1] TRUE
tanident_1(44*atan(1/57)   +  7*atan(1/239) + -12*atan(1/682)  +  24*atan(1/12943))
## [1] TRUE

tanident_1(88*atan(1/172)  + 51*atan(1/239) +  32*atan(1/682)  +  44*atan(1/5357) + 68*atan(1/12943))
## [1] TRUE
tanident_1(88*atan(1/172)  + 51*atan(1/239) +  32*atan(1/682)  +  44*atan(1/5357) + 68*atan(1/12944))
## [1] FALSE

As you can see all statements are TRUE except for the last one!

In the code, I make use of the Rmpfr package (from Martin Maechler of ETH Zürich, Switzerland) which is based on the excellent GMP (GNU Multiple Precision) library. I define a new infix operator %:% for high-precision division and after that convert all standard divisions in the formulae to high-precision divisions and calculate the tan. Before I check if the result is identical to one I round it to 100 decimal places which is more than enough given the precision of log_{10}(2^{1000})=301.03, so about 300 decimal places, in the example.

Please let me know in the comments what you think of this approach and whether you see room for improvement for the code – Thank you!

3 thoughts on “Check Machin-like Formulae with Arbitrary-Precision Arithmetic”

  1. Whats the literature reference for this machine like formula:

    ?- X is 20*atan(29/278)+28*atan(3/79).
    X = 3.141592653589793.

    Number 5 in your list.

      1. I guess I found already some older provenance, formula (19) here:

        XI. Investigation of a New Series for the Computation of Logarithms ; with a New Investigation of a Series for the Rectification of the Circle. By JAMES Thomson, LL.D., Professor of Mathematics in the University of Glasgow.
        in Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Band 14,Ausgabe 1
        https://books.google.ch/books?id=f0ED_CKR6AsC&lpg=PA223&ots=T9XjaJnuiD&dq=69049993&hl=de&pg=PA223#v=onepage&q=69049993&f=false

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