New world record - Akira Haraguchi recites 83,431 digits of pi

Doctor Q · Jul 3, 2005

Now this is my kind of news story!

News link

Chiba, Japan- A 59-year-old man from Chiba Prefecture recited pi, or the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter, to 83,431 digits from Friday to Saturday in a new world record that is almost double the current Guinness Book record. ... The current Guinness world record for reciting pi from memory is held by another Japanese who recited it to the 42,195th digit while a college student.

It's a feat that's hard to imagine. I can't understand how Mr. Haraguchi can remember a stream of digits that long. I guess some brains just have lots of efficient RAM wired in. In any case, I'm glad to see the new record and hope the Guinness Book recognizes it.

mkrishnan · Jul 3, 2005

Wow!

My best friend at the time and I memorized about 60 digits of Pi when we were about 15....

That was a long time ago. God I was such a geek back then!

ham_man · Jul 3, 2005

Wow. That is alot of numbers. And I thought that memorizing 30 lines for Romeo and Juliet was hard...

stubeeef · Jul 3, 2005

mkrishnan said:
Wow!

My best friend at the time and I memorized about 60 digits of Pi when we were about 15.... That was a long time ago. God I was such a geek back then!

Ya I was a geek with my best friend, we would figure out many moles of bear there was in a 500# bear.
One day on a Blue Ridge overlook we figured how many moles of trees we could see! Ya, pretty embarassing stuff, even more embarassing now, but hey I don't really know anyone here anyway.

Doctor Q · Jul 3, 2005

I've been able to recite 72 digits of pi ever since about 7th grade, although I often get the 35th digit wrong for some reason.

Knowing that much of pi comes in handy quite often. For example, um, er, ... ok, it has never come in handy.

noaccess · Jul 3, 2005

Could there be a possibility that he only said the first about 100 digits correctly and then recited all the other stuff at random, knowing that nobody else could verify him on the spot

?

Doctor Q · Jul 3, 2005

noaccess said:
Could there be a possibility that he only said the first about 100 digits correctly and then recited all the other stuff at random, knowing that nobody else could verify him on the spot ?

Some poor sucker probably had to check the whole thing. I wonder if they made an audio or video recording of his performance.

Your question reminds me of how I "prove" that the digits I recite are really those of pi. First, if somebody writes down the digits and has me start over, they can confirm that I am reciting the same digits each time, which shows that I know some 72-digit number. Then I claim that if an admitted geek memorizes a 72-digit number that starts as pi does, it must actually be pi because there would be no reason to memorize any other such number!

Loge · Jul 3, 2005

Impressive!

However, I can also recite 83,431 digits of pi. Just not the first 83,431.

noaccess · Jul 3, 2005

Loge said:
Impressive!

However, I can also recite 83,431 digits of pi. Just not the first 83,431.

Care to prove that

? I'll provide the coffee

atszyman · Jul 3, 2005

Loge said:
Impressive!

However, I can also recite 83,431 digits of pi. Just not the first 83,431.

Anyone can recite 83,431 digits of pi, even more if you want. It's getting them in the right order that's the hard part.

iMeowbot · Jul 3, 2005

Three mic booms were in the guy's face, I'd say that there was some care taken to record it.

Loge · Jul 3, 2005

atszyman said:
Anyone can recite 83,431 digits of pi, even more if you want. It's getting them in the right order that's the hard part.

Well you can even get them in the right order without difficulty. Knowing where the sequence starts is what is hard.

JonMaker · Jul 3, 2005

A wise man once defined pi as (something to the effect of) "Three, followed by as many digits as you care to employ."

Let's see someone calcuate something practical using pi to 83431 digits... sounds like a headache to me.

wdlove · Jul 3, 2005

A very impressive feat. My question would be in what form is this useful?

We are very fortunate to have Doctor Q on our forum that can recite 72 digits of pi.

zelmo · Jul 3, 2005

Wow. To think that I was pleased when I finally memorized the 26 digit hex key for the wireless network at work, and that's something I pretty much use every day at least once.

Very impressive...and quite pointless.

mkrishnan · Jul 3, 2005

Loge said:
Well you can even get them in the right order without difficulty. Knowing where the sequence starts is what is hard.

Actually, isn't this completely correct? It's been quite a while since I took real analysis, but my memory is that you can prove explicitly that any sequence of digits, with any contents, of any length, appears embedded within the number pi (or the number e) at some point in the sequence. The proof doesn't involve where in the sequence, though.

I thought the general principle was that this is true of any irrational number, but I don't think that's true. It's not true of an irrational number such as 0.10100100010000100000.....

Linkjeniero · Jul 3, 2005

mkrishnan said:
Actually, isn't this completely correct? It's been quite a while since I took real analysis, but my memory is that you can prove explicitly that any sequence of digits, with any contents, of any length, appears embedded within the number pi (or the number e) at some point in the sequence. The proof doesn't involve where in the sequence, though.

I thought the general principle was that this is true of any irrational number, but I don't think that's true. It's not true of an irrational number such as 0.10100100010000100000.....

I think it's not true to all irrational numbers, only trascendental numbers (wich are a subset of irrational numbers).

snkTab · Jul 3, 2005

I wonder if he knew the last digit he said, or if he just messed up.

And that's a lot to say correctly. I mean, what if he knew it, but just said it wrong as sometimes happens.

Abstract · Jul 3, 2005

I was proud to know the first 10 digits.

Never put any real effort into it, though. I never saw the point.

Doctor Q · Jul 3, 2005

Representing pi in base 10 is only interesting and useful because we (well, most of us) happen to have 10 fingers. If I were a mathematician studying patterns in pi, I'd study it in binary. (Although I imagine there isn't much point in studying such patterns.)

AmigoMac · Jul 4, 2005

At work, I just care to program my software to use X * (PI) when designing, and if I have time enough I could do it manually with 3,1416 ...

, my boss would be very happy if I use the first 5 digits.

Nice for this man and for Mr. Dr Q.
I'm not lazy with numbers but I like speed and productivity.

broken_keyboard · Jul 4, 2005

Doctor Q said:
I can't understand how Mr. Haraguchi can remember a stream of digits that long.

Me neither... he must have cheated somehow.

AmigoMac · Jul 4, 2005

broken_keyboard said:
Me neither... he must have cheated somehow.

Yeah, he had an in-ear phone...

Gotta love 3,1416!!

CelticBhoy · Jul 4, 2005

This Japanese chap really needs to get out more. Unless he uses it as a chat-up line of course ......... by the time he gets to the 31416th digit I'm sure the chicks will be all over him !

snkTab · Jul 4, 2005

Actually, wasn't it the Japanese who were thinking of shortening the use of pi to just 3 for math in school?

New world record - Akira Haraguchi recites 83,431 digits of pi

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