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William Shanks (25 January 1812 – June 1882)[1] was a British amateur mathematician.

Shanks is famous for his calculation of π to 707 places, accomplished in 1873, which was only correct for the first 527 places.[2][3] This error was highlighted in 1944 by D. F. Ferguson (using a mechanical desk calculator).[4]

Shanks earned his living by owning a boarding school at Houghton-le-Spring, which left him enough time to spend on his hobby of calculating mathematical constants. His routine was as follows: he would calculate new digits all morning, and then he would spend all afternoon checking his morning's work. To calculate π, Shanks used Machin's formula:

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