Since there is no "magic variable" to get a value for Pi in an application, Tobias Schlitt offers up the next best thing - his homegrown solution for creating the value (using a randomized variation).

I don't know which is the most common way to calculate Pi in computer programs, but from the stochastics book a read for my recent stochastics exam, I have a randomized variation, which is quite cool I think.

The code example is included along with a bit of explanation for those not familiar with the concepts behind it. It uses two of PHP functions, pow() and mt_rand(), to run through a series of iterations and, using a preset precision value, find the "hits" to finally calculate the value at the end.