Comments on: 3.1415926535897932384626433...

3.1415926535897932384626433...

Faint of Butt — Mon, 04 Jul 2005 06:48:27 -0800

Very few people will ever need to learn the value of pi beyond a handful of digits, but some people are more obsessed than others. They call themselves Piphilologists, and all the pi-memorization writings you could ever possibly want have been compiled into one massive Piphilogical text file. And today, Piphilologists the world over must surely bow in tribute to Akira Haraguchi, who has just recited pi from memory to 83,431 places.

By: Faint of Butt

Faint of Butt — Mon, 04 Jul 2005 06:49:26 -0800

Previous interesting pi-related MeFi thread here.

By: Pretty_Generic

Pretty_Generic — Mon, 04 Jul 2005 06:58:31 -0800

Did he learn it to 200,000 places and make a mistake? Or was he just guessing for the final 500 digits, and got lucky? Or, and this is what I suspect, is he a fraud?

By: Pretty_Generic

Pretty_Generic — Mon, 04 Jul 2005 06:58:51 -0800

3.142 SHIT

By: caddis

caddis — Mon, 04 Jul 2005 07:06:40 -0800

What a waste of a life.

By: mdn

mdn — Mon, 04 Jul 2005 07:53:01 -0800

I once knew it to 100. I once could recite all the presidents, too. I think I can still recite all the states. What a waste of a life. yeah... but then, what isn't? we're all gonna die anyway :) Did he learn it to 200,000 places and make a mistake? Or was he just guessing for the final 500 digits, and got lucky? why 200K? (or 82,931, for that matter?) I agree that the number seems kinda random, though.

By: StickyCarpet

StickyCarpet — Mon, 04 Jul 2005 08:01:04 -0800

the number seems kinda random Would you go to 80,000 and stop there? I will bet you that he now knows the 82,932nd digit very well.

By: c13

c13 — Mon, 04 Jul 2005 08:01:39 -0800

I sometimes tell people I know pi up to 500 places. Then I just start naming random numbers. If I can keep from laughing long enough, some even get impressed.

By: nj_subgenius

nj_subgenius — Mon, 04 Jul 2005 08:03:20 -0800

82931, yeah.

By: waldo

waldo — Mon, 04 Jul 2005 08:51:54 -0800

I recommend David Blatner's "The Joy of Pi" for my fellow pi geeks.

By: Chunder

Chunder — Mon, 04 Jul 2005 08:52:32 -0800

Today? Most serious piphilologists have been bowing in tribute since... ooh... Saturday. According to this BBC article, he also had to restart after three hours because he lost his place... whoops. /me wonders how long it takes (a) to memorize that many items, (b) to recite that many numbers, (c) for him to get a girlfriend...

By: Aknaton

Aknaton — Mon, 04 Jul 2005 09:25:14 -0800

The really sad story was that the guy only made it to 50K places last year, and then had to stop because the venue was closing. 2.7 1828 1828 45 90 45

By: weapons-grade pandemonium

weapons-grade pandemonium — Mon, 04 Jul 2005 10:29:28 -0800

I have memorized pi to two places, then there's a bit of a gap, and the billionth digit is nine.

By: blasdelf

blasdelf — Mon, 04 Jul 2005 13:35:50 -0800

There's a quote in one of the articles about this guy that says that to calculatate the circumfrence of a circle the size of the known universe accurately, you'd only need to know pi to 30 digits. After that, It's just stupid.

By: clevershark

clevershark — Mon, 04 Jul 2005 14:21:56 -0800

I've heard of esoteric hobbies, but this is ridiculous!

By: madman

madman — Mon, 04 Jul 2005 14:22:30 -0800

I'm sure there's a good pick-up line in there somewhere. "Hey baby, do you know I can tell you the value of pi up to 83,431 places?"

By: scheptech

scheptech — Mon, 04 Jul 2005 14:24:53 -0800

As a psychiatric counselor, how much empathy can this guy have for people who can't remember what day of the week it is?

By: 0bvious

0bvious — Mon, 04 Jul 2005 17:24:36 -0800

Pi may have been calculated to 1.24 trillion decimal places, but the only thing this mammoth number is used for is testing out the supercomputers that calculate it and giving Japanese Mental Health Workers something to do on their days off..... if one were to find the circumference of a circle the size of the known universe, accurate to within the radius of one proton, only 39 decimal places of Pi would actually be necessary! - more here

By: gauchodaspampas

gauchodaspampas — Mon, 04 Jul 2005 22:02:12 -0800

The official current record-holder, also Japanese, calculated pi from memory to 42,195 decimal places in 1995. Wow. He calculated it to 42195 places. And calculated it from memory, no less. I don't even know what calculating from memory means.

By: daq

daq — Tue, 05 Jul 2005 07:28:36 -0800

One would guess that, given the vagaries of the English language, the phrase "calculated from memory" would mean he had to do all the computations in his head without the aid of pencil and paper or other ways of recording his place. The main thing about this feat is that it requires that you are accurate on every single calculation, remembering the remainder after each division by 7 (pi being the result of starting with 22 divided by 7). Such a simple equation, yet it is, as currently calculated, estimated to be infinite (or at least such that the human mind will tend to snap after trying to fathom it for too long). Don't ever, ever, ever get someone with OCD started on pi. They will simply curl up in a little ball and whimper.

By: The Ultimate Olympian

The Ultimate Olympian — Tue, 05 Jul 2005 08:11:52 -0800

*in a little ball* *whimpering*

By: Occultatio

Occultatio — Tue, 05 Jul 2005 10:30:11 -0800

madman: are you thinking of this?

By: mdn

mdn — Tue, 05 Jul 2005 11:39:39 -0800

heh, aknaton, I have a pi and an e t-shirt (home made), myself. After that, It's just stupid. do you really think it's useful for calculations up to 30 digits? even serious mathematicians usually just go with 3.1416. But it's the contemplation of limit & infinity, and the poetry of randomness, that make it intriguing... hm, the post title here ends just at the second part of the semi-palindromic part...