@inbook{10.2307/j.ctt7t8q5.11,
 ISBN = {9780691141343},
 URL = {http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt7t8q5.11},
 abstract = {About eighteen hundred years after Archimedes, a French mathematician by the name of François Viète (or Vieta, 1540-1603), in the course of his work in trigonometry, found a remarkable formula involving the number π:$\frac{2}{\pi } = \frac{{\sqrt 2 }}{2}.\frac{{\sqrt {2 + \sqrt 2 } }}{2}.\frac{{\sqrt {2 + \sqrt {2 + \sqrt 2 } } }}{2}$.....The discovery of thisinfinite productin 1593 marked a milestone in the history of mathematics: it was the first time an infinite process was explicitly written as a mathematical formula. Indeed, the most remarkable feature of Viète’s formula, apart from its elegant form, is the three dots at the end, telling us to go on and on . . .ad infinitum.It shows},
 bookauthor = {Eli Maor},
 booktitle = {"e": The Story of a Number},
 pages = {49--55},
 publisher = {Princeton University Press},
 title = {Prelude to Breakthrough},
 year = {1994}
}