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83,431 Recited Digits of Pi
Posted by
CowboyNeal
on Sat Jul 02, 2005 09:44 AM
from the lots-of-memory dept.
from the lots-of-memory dept.
i_like_spam writes "59-year-old Akira Haraguchi of Japan recently broke the world record for the recited number of digits of Pi. Haraguchi-san recited an amazing 83,431 digits of Pi during a 13-hour overnight stretch. This almost doubles the previous record of 42,195 digits by fellow Japanese Hiroyuki Goto.
Though it is not yet updated to reflect the new record, the Pi-World-Ranking-List has the rules for participation and breaks down the ranking by world, continent, and country. Links to world rankings for memorized digits of E and Sqrt(2) are also given."
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Miscalculation? (Score:4, Informative)
Um, I'm not a math major, but since when is 83,431 > 84,390, which is double the amount of 42,195? You don't even need a calculator to figure that one out. But as far as the accomplishment goes: That's a simply amazing feat, I applaud Haraguchi greatly, How do you memorize a number that deep, I can barely remember what I had for breakfast.
Re:Miscalculation? (Score:3, Interesting)
So it wasn't as hard as it looked - he just memorised an 83,431 syllable mnemonic.
Re:Miscalculation? (Score:3, Funny)
Actually English has that too. It sounds something like "wun," "tooh," "three"....
Re:Miscalculation? (Score:5, Informative)
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Re:Miscalculation? (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:Miscalculation? (Score:3, Funny)
(Read the usernames if you're confused.)
Re:Miscalculation? (Score:3, Informative)
The reason time wasn't mentioned in the claim i.e. "this more than doubles the previous record of 21,195 digits in X hours" is most likely because the information wasn't available to the submitter.
A simple mnemonic for the first 15 (Score:3, Funny)
It's easy... (Score:3, Funny)
You only have to remember about 40 numbers and then they start repeating.
Re:Miscalculation? (Score:5, Insightful)
Did they memorize them character by character?
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Re:Miscalculation? (Score:5, Informative)
http://mathworld.wolfram.com/BBPFormula.html [wolfram.com]
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Re:Miscalculation? (Score:4, Interesting)
Take a series of letters, makes nouns, create your own poem or story. Link words and phrases with absurd images (the more absurd, the better), and you suddenly can remember long series of numbers.
Parent
Re:Miscalculation? (Score:4, Interesting)
My son has Aspergers sysdrome, Which is a type of Autism) and I can see him doing this. He memorizes movies, by chapter and time. With his Star Wars movies he can see a small clip and tell you the chapter and time on the DVD, and that is light weight lifting for him. It's not a photographic memory but like a database which him can sort and link with other databases in his mind and do it extremely fast. I'm going to start teaching him a programming language this summer and a Linux box to his desk.
Remember that the the Autism spectrum is very broad and goes from people who need to be in institutions and on the of side of the sprectrum those who we would consider just a excentric.
I know we just think about Rain Man when we hear Austism.
We need to look past that and see the potential, My son is only 8 and yes he can be frustrating at times but I can't wait to see what he can do in the future.
Well I got to go. Have a list to finish
1)Buy matching suits for son and I
2)go to Vegas and play Black JAck
3) ?
4) PROFIT!!!!
Parent
Actually (Score:5, Funny)
In Base 10? piece of cake... er pie (Score:3, Funny)
(lame comment) (Score:5, Funny)
Good, now she can counsel herself on having more exciting things to do than learning and reciting the digits of a number anyone of us can look up.
Explain (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:Explain (Score:3, Insightful)
I know for a fact people laugh at me on those occasions I'd rather work out an idea in front of the computer on a Friday night instead of going out
To each their own. Hell, first thing I did on a Saturday morning is made this post to slashdot!
Good times. (Score:5, Funny)
People (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:People (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:People (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:People (Score:5, Funny)
What does it take to be number 1? Two is not a winner, and three no one remembers...
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Re:People (Score:4, Funny)
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Never going to be me.... (Score:2)
--Dave
Still a t-shirt (Score:3, Informative)
Rank list goes down to 50? (Score:3, Interesting)
In other news (Score:5, Funny)
Re:In other news (Score:5, Funny)
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Wait a minute? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Wait a minute? (Score:5, Interesting)
Solving Pi algorithmically in your head would be a larger feat than memorizing it.
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His wife must be proud! (Score:5, Funny)
That's a slow storage device (Score:5, Interesting)
I don't even want to think about the write speed of this storage device. At least the storage capacity of the device has nearly doubled (from 42,195 digits or 17.1 kB).
i heard about this sort of thing (Score:5, Funny)
i don't have hard drives. i just keep 30 chinese teenagers in my basement and force them to memorize numbers
My Law (Score:5, Interesting)
1) Memorization
2) Logical Thinking
3) Wasted watching 'Surivor'.
The more time you spend on #1, the less you have for #2 and #3. The more on #2, the less for #1 and #3. The more on #3, the less for #1 and #2.
Note that Albert Einstein was not considered to have a super high IQ by "world changing genius" standards. But the dude could not even remember his phone number or address. Clearly he robbed #1 to get more #2.
I am not sure what this counselor's total intelligence is. But she sure wasted precious brain cells on something that is irrelevant (3.141592654 gives you the circumference of the earth to within a centimeter given its diameter), and easily looked up.
Re:My Law (Score:4, Interesting)
But she sure wasted precious brain cells on something that is irrelevant (3.141592654 gives you the circumference of the earth to within a centimeter given its diameter), and easily looked up.
You're missing the point - this is not about doing something useful, it's about proving that it can be done by a human. For the same reason people hold sports competitions: that somebody can jump 2.40 meters high is also irrelevant per se, but it sure is an impressive thing for a human to do.
Your theory about the 3 capacities is interesting, but as it stands, it's just that: a theory. I for one think it is more likely that the brain can be trained, and through training can expand its capacity. Certainly the concentration required to memorize large numbers will be beneficial when we try to think logically.
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Obligatory Simpsons... (Score:5, Funny)
Apu: No. In fact, I can recite pi to 50,000 places. The last digit is 1.
Homer: Mmmm.... Pi.
Re:Obligatory Simpsons... (Score:3, Funny)
In ninth grade algebra, I walk into class and the teacher had put an infinity symbol on the whiteboard.
I, being the smart ass I am says,
"Mr. Dewey, who killed eight?"
Mr. Dewey says without missing a beat,
"Pi...It's an irrational number."
More math genius (Score:3, Funny)
This is the math section? I love it.
I want her.... (Score:3, Funny)
"OK, just remember this:
100101101100010100101010100011100101010010
83,431th digits (Score:5, Interesting)
this is interesting. (Score:5, Interesting)
Curiously, the Pi World Ranking List had meny Japanese and Indian names. This is sort of understandable. Both cultures used to emphasize on memorizing texts for a long long time. Up until my grandfather's generation, being educated meant being able to recite the whole Confucius, and some other assorted Chinese classics. In my schooldays, too, we were forced to memorize bunch of stuff that turned out to be useless (pi was not one of them though
In India, too, traditional education for Brahmins started as memorizing the Veda transmitted to their family. There still are some people who can recite a whole Veda. Those people tended to memorize other stuff as well.
Probably for the Japanese and Indians, memorizing some long strings that don't make sense is not that a strange thing.
By the way, I am a Sanskritist, not a mathematician.
Re:this is interesting. (Score:3, Interesting)
Memorizing PI is key to understanding what PI means. If you can't remember what PI is... how can you calculate the circumference of a circle?
Memorization is the key to learning. How can you begin to understand P&S geometry without memorizing the theorems?
Lets not forget that being able to REMEMBER (or memorize) what you have learned is necessary. Otherwise, you have to learn things over and over again.
Like it or not, we are creatures of habit, pattern recognition, and memorization.
In the Soviet Union... (Score:3, Funny)
MP3 (Score:5, Funny)
Re:No life (Score:2)
FWIW, I'd like to somehow get that as a phone number - "find a calculator, and press the Pi key - it'll give you my phone number"... Unfortunately, Google's definition of Pi is only 3.14159265...
Re:No life (Score:5, Funny)
Some would say that 3.1459 is more than enough.
(I tried to hold back - I really did)
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Re:Google it (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:It's not a ratio ! (Score:3, Funny)
What's the resistance of a transcendental number?
Ohmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.....
Re:Japanese suffixes (Score:4, Informative)
Second, you can call a little boy "mister" or preferably, "master."
Third, calling someone "SoAndSo-san" while you're otherwise speaking English sounds really stupid to people who actually speak Japanese.
Finally, you wouldn't use san for a little boy either. You'd call him kun or possibly , chan.
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