A History of the Kerala School of Hindu Astronomy (in Perspective) c8.s6.29

c8.s6.29

‘Let the process stop at a certain stage, giving rise to a ‘finite sum’. Multiply four times the diameter by half the even integer subsequent to the last odd integer used as divisor and then divide by the square of the integer increased by unity. The result is the correction to be added to or subtracted from our ‘finite sum’, the choice of addition or subtraction depending on the sign of the last term in the sum. The final result is the circumference determined more accurately than (that obtained) by taking a large number of terms, *i.e.*, terms going beyond the stage at which we stopped.’