我想問一些關於祖沖之的背景和他的發現?

Zu Chongzhi (祖冲之, pinyin Zǔ Chōngzhī, Wade-Giles Tsu Ch'ung-chih) (429-500) was a Chinese mathematician and astronomer during the Liu Song and Southern Qi Dynasties (of the Southern Dynasties).

His ancestors hailed from Qiu district, Fanyang Commandery (part of modern Beijing). To flee from the ravages of war, Zu Chongzhi's grandfather Zu Chang moved from Hebei, in north China, to south of the Yangtze River, as part of the massive population movement during the Eastern Jin Dynasty. Zu Chang at one point held the position of "Minister of Great Works" (Dàjiàngqīn) within the Song Dynasty (420-479) and was in charge of government construction projects. Zu Chongzhi's father also served the court and was greatly respected for his erudition.

Zu Chongzhi was born in 429 in Jiankang (today Nanjing). His family had historically been involved in astronomy research, and from childhood Zu Chongzhi was exposed to both astronomy and mathematics. When he was only a youth his talent earned him much repute. When Emperor Xiaowu heard of him, he was sent to an Academy, the "Huálín Xuéshěng", and later at the Imperial Nanking University(Zongmingguan) to perform research. In 461 in Nanxu (today Zhenjiang in Jiangsu) he was engaged in work at the office of the local governor.

His achievements included:

the Daming calendar (大明曆) introduced in 465.
deriving two approximations of pi, which held as the most accurate approximation for π for over nine hundred years. His best approximation was between 3.1415926 and 3.1415927, with 355⁄113 (密率, Milü, detailed approximation) and 22⁄7 (约率, Yuelü, rough approximation) being the other notable approximations.
finding the volume of a sphere as being 4πr³/3, where r is radius.

祖沖之

祖沖之(429-500)是南北朝時代的偉大科學家。他利用割圓術

求得圓內接二四五七六邊形的周長，從而推算出圓周率的值

是在3.1415926和3.1415927之間。而且他采用22/7作為約率，355/

113作為密率。這些結果都比西方早超過數個世紀。要知道當

時只有算籌這種計算工具，計算工作是很繁重的。由於他不畏

艱苦，有堅強的毅力才能獲得這光輝的成果。

祖沖之和他的兒子祖日恒得到球的體積公式：

球體積=(3/4)*圓周率*(球半徑)^3 (x^3代表x的三次方/立方)

祖沖之不單是個數學家，還是天文學家、文學家、機械發明

家。在天文方面，他提出了當時最好的歷法「大明曆」，而且

還算出地球繞太陽一周所需的時間是365.24281481日，和現在

由製儀器得到的數據365.2422日，他的數字準確到小數後三個

。一千多年前他這個成果是值得我們驕傲的。

他還發明了指南車、水碓磨與千里船等，還成功製造了

類似諸葛孔明的「木牛流馬」的運輸工具，從中見到祖沖之

是如何的聰明。

祖沖之在世時並不得意，不但沒有大官做，而且在生前還見不到「

大明曆」的採用。最令人惋惜的是記載他和兒子數學成果的

書《綴術》在宋朝失傳了。今日在月球上很多座以偉大科學家

命名的山，祖沖之是其中一個，亦是中國的唯一一個，由此可

見到他是如何的偉大呢！