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Pi Recited to 100,000 Digits

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the three-point-one-what dept.

DiAmOnDirc writes "Akira Haraguchi, 60, needed more than 16 hours to recite the number to 100,000 decimal places, breaking his personal best of 83,431 digits set in 1995, his office said Wednesday. He made the attempt at a public hall in Kisarazu, just east of Tokyo. Haraguchi, a psychiatric counselor and business consultant in nearby Mobara city, took a break of about 5 minutes every one to two hours, going to the rest room and eating rice balls during the attempt, said Naoki Fujii, spokesman of Haraguchi's office. Fujii said all of Haraguchi's activities during the attempt, including his bathroom breaks, were videotaped for evidence that will later be sent for verification by the Guinness Book of Records."

33 of 335 comments (clear)

  1. Details by rjstanford · · Score: 4, Interesting

    More to the point (although you could infer it from the "newsworthiness" of the story): he did it from memory. Although I'd be surprised if anyone had ever even read out 100,000 digits of Pi but, then again, I've been surprised by stupid people. Also from the article, "In 2002, University of Tokyo mathematicians, aided by a supercomputer, set the world record for figuring out pi to 1.24 trillion decimal places." So:

    a) He's got a way to go; and
    b) Sagan not proven right yet, still no circle.

    I'm guessing there's no girlfriend, either, but the only evidence I have supporting this is that, well, this guy memorized 100,000 digits of Pi. C'mon...

    --
    You're special forces then? That's great! I just love your olympics!
    1. Re:Details by MobileTatsu-NJG · · Score: 4, Funny

      "I'm guessing there's no girlfriend, either, but the only evidence I have supporting this is that, well, this guy memorized 100,000 digits of Pi. C'mon..."

      Yeah... I just love the guy posting on Slashdot about his assumption of some other guy not having a gf because of how he spends his time.

      --

      "I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)

    2. Re:Details by Poltras · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Please explain to me how reciting a number to 100,000 digits is smart. Sure lot of memory, and I don't say he's not smart, probably does a good job as a consultant, but this act by itself is by no mean a proof of his intelligence. Now, he must be the only man who can remember (or not) the birthdays of his parents and girlfriends (if he has any)...

      --
      Of Code And Men
    3. Re:Details by BJH · · Score: 3, Informative

      Um, he's in his 50s, he's married, and his wife was there when he was reciting it.

    4. Re:Details by Plutonite · · Score: 5, Funny

      Pointless. CowboyNeal will obviously win.

    5. Re:Details by pilkul · · Score: 4, Interesting
      Now, he must be the only man who can remember (or not) the birthdays of his parents and girlfriends (if he has any)...
      Not necessarily. Memorizing large amounts of random information has more to do with effective mnemonic techniques and capacity for intense concentration than base retentive skill. If he doesn't concentrate on something, he still can forget it. I've heard from people who like to memorize decks of cards that it's a cool party trick but it's a good idea not to let your girlfriend know you can do it for just this reason!
    6. Re:Details by rjstanford · · Score: 4, Funny
      Um, he's in his 50s, he's married, and his wife was there when he was reciting it.


      So, you're saying that he probably does have a girlfriend?
      --
      You're special forces then? That's great! I just love your olympics!
    7. Re:Details by ClickOnThis · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Please explain to me how reciting a number to 100,000 digits is smart. Sure lot of memory, and I don't say he's not smart, probably does a good job as a consultant, but this act by itself is by no mean a proof of his intelligence.

      Consider that "intelligence" can be (mis)measured in many different ways. The classic measure is an IQ test, which arguably does measure one's depths of reasoning in various ways, but at the end of the day, an IQ test really just measures how good one is at doing IQ tests. There are other kinds of "intelligence". For example, Wayne Gretzky might score modestly on an IQ test, but on a hockey rink, he was a "genius" in terms of psychomotor skills.

      As other respondents have said, Haraguchi probably looks for patterns in the digits that he can associate with other memorable concepts, perhaps visual or aural, or both. I would argue that such an ability is indeed a form of intelligence, insofar as it does involve a higher form of mental activity -- a kind of "abstraction" of the perceived patterns of the digits into aggregates that are available for him to recall. I think it's similar to the kind of intelligence that a musician needs to memorize a piece of music.

      --
      If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
    8. Re:Details by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful
      Technically, since Pi is infinitely long and never repeats, any finite series of digits must appear at some point.


      Sorry that's a non sequitur. There are series which are (a) infinitely long and (b) non-repetitive but which nevertheless do not contain any possible (finite) sequence of digits, just consider the series 1 0 11 0 111 0 1111 0 11111 - look no repetition Ma but the subsequence '1337' (for example) does not appear anywhere.
    9. Re:Details by sacrilicious · · Score: 3, Insightful
      Technically, since Pi is infinitely long and never repeats, any finite series of digits must appear at some point.

      Don't think that's true. Counter example: consider the stream of digits comprised of pi with all 7's removed. Still infinitely long and never repeating, but 7 never appears now.

      --
      - First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then ???, then profit.
    10. Re:Details by david_g17 · · Score: 3, Funny

      You try remembering 100k digits when you get to his age.

      You try remembering 1k digits right now.

      no problem. i have the first 100K digits memorized already... 1,2,3,4,5,6,7...
  2. The name for that kind of chanting by Beryllium+Sphere(tm) · · Score: 5, Funny

    is "Transcendental Meditation".

  3. Pi is like so last year by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Memorizing the digits of e is cool.

  4. I know pi to 100K places by sulli · · Score: 4, Funny
    Ain't got no grills, but I still wear braces ...

    Weird Al's got nothing on this dude.

    --

    sulli
    RTFJ.
  5. Re:White and Nerdy... by coso · · Score: 5, Funny

    All that work and he could have just asked Weird Al.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xEzGIuY7kw

  6. Rice by miskatonic+alumnus · · Score: 4, Funny

    ... going to the rest room and eating rice balls during the attempt

    I wonder how many digits of pi can be squeezed onto a piece of rice.

    1. Re:Rice by Gwwfps · · Score: 3, Interesting

      A whole ball could actually hold at least a few thousand digits if not more. In a lot of places in China (usually near tourist attractions), there are artists who write your requested messages on rice. After some googling, I could only find these two pretty bad photos. The first seems to be not as good as most I've actually seen, the second just shows an artist working. Another one can give one a real idea of what the masters can do: 42 US presidents on rice.

  7. He's using memory technique by zymano · · Score: 3, Interesting

    He's not memorizing like a regular person would.

    It's been talked about on slashdot before using some memorization technique association groups of numbers with memorable patterns.

    Don't ask me for links.

    1. Re:He's using memory technique by gkwok · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Poe, E.: Near a Raven encodes the first 740 digits of pi using word lengths as digits, while preserving the structure, story, and tone of the poem it is based on.

    2. Re:He's using memory technique by coobird · · Score: 5, Informative
      He's not memorizing like a regular person would. It's been talked about on slashdot before using some memorization technique association groups of numbers with memorable patterns.

      More specifically, he memorizes the digits by making a story, probably from the sound of the numbers.

      In Japanese, you can make a play on words by the sound of the numbers called goro-awase. For example, if there is a sequence of numbers such as "3341", it can be read as "sa-mi-shi-i" which means "sad". By having a series of these play on words, he can make up a story, which is much easier to remember than a sequence of numbers.

      If you're curious, here is the article (in Japanese) that mentions that the guy makes a story to memorize the digits.

    3. Re:He's using memory technique by Galvatron · · Score: 3, Interesting
      One of the oldest and most venerable general-purpose mneumonic techniques is called simply The Art of Memory, which basically involves memorizing a particular path through a particular building, and then populating that mental building with objects and symbols based on whatever one is trying to remember. In an age before cheap paper and writing utensils, this was very widely used, though rarely written about, and is likely responsible for much of the West's obsession with symbolism and dual meanings (the cournicopia as a symbol of plenty, Mars and Venus representing masculinity and femininity, the whole art of heraldry, the assignment to each saint of a particular profession, etc.). Indeed, Freemasonry, that most symbolic of institutions, owed some of its broad popularity, and its shift in focus from an operative guild to a speculative fraternity, to its connection with the Art of Memory.


      I imagine that this guy was probably using a more specialized mneumonic, like the Raven poem linked to by the guy above, but as the Wikipedia link mentions, many of those who perform great feats of memory do still use this. Let's admit it though: there is no extant trick which would make memorizing 100,000 digits EASY.

      --
      "The question of whether a computer can think is no more interesting than that of whether a submarine can swim" -EWD
  8. Re:Good Manners by commodoresloat · · Score: 5, Funny

    Actually, when he wasn't eating rice balls, his mouth was full of pi.

    OK, OK, I'm leaving, no need to shove....

  9. Easy way to remember pi to 8 decimal places by Fish+(David+Trout) · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I'm sure we can all remember the first digit: 3, right?

    But it's all those digits (decimal places) that follows the 3 that we all have trouble remembering, right?

    So okay. Just memorize the following simple phrase:

        "I wish I could recollect pi easily today"

    The number of letters in each word are the first 8 decimal digits:

            1 4 1 5 9 2 6 5

    Thus PI is approximately: 3.14159265...

    Which should be <i>plenty</i> long enough for most calculations.

    The only hard part of course is remembering to use the word "recollect" instead of "remember". :)

    --
    "Fish" (David B. Trout)
  10. 100,000 digits is nothing... by Nahor · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...I'm currently at 1,135,972 digits for 1/3. Also, I already finished reciting all the digits for 1/2.

    1. Re:100,000 digits is nothing... by TubeSteak · · Score: 4, Funny
      Also, I already finished reciting all the digits for 1/2.
      1/2 huh?
      Good luck with 3/4.
      It's twice as long!
      --
      [Fuck Beta]
      o0t!
  11. Re:22/7 by Ruff_ilb · · Score: 3, Informative

    Just remember 355/133 (3.1415929...). It's the most accurate fraction possible with only a three-digit numerator and denominator. (WP)

    --
    http://www.TheGamerNation.com/Forums
  12. Re:22/7 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Just remember 355/133 (3.1415929...). It's the most accurate fraction possible with only a three-digit numerator and denominator.

    It's not that accurate: 355/133 = 2.66917... . I think maybe you meant 355/113.

  13. A public performance? by Toxicgonzo · · Score: 5, Funny

    He made the attempt at a public hall in Kisarazu

    Did people actually go to watch this guy? What did they say to each other when he finished?

    "Hey, remember the part when he was all like 3, 5, 1, 7, 4, 4, 2, 5, 6, 6, 2, 1, 0, 4, 5, 7? That was wicked sick"
    "Yea, yea, and then he followed it up with a 4, 2, 4, 7, 3, 1, 1, 5, 2, 2, 5, 9, 0, 2, 3 and I was like ROCK ON Akira, ROCK ON"

  14. Re:Videotaped? by Da3vid · · Score: 4, Funny

    Maybe he'll get the world record for most video recorded bathroom breaks in a row by a 60 year old man. When was the last time anyone checked out the Guiness Book of World Records? Those are the types of records they're looking for.

  15. Re:That's very impressive... by rolfwind · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Sure, Olympic Runners can run fast, but what is the point? Any car made in the last 100 years can go faster.

    Sure, in the days of hunting/gathering, it was a vital skill. Transportation, for me, is a means to an end, but if you have no place to go, why even bother with it at all?

  16. Better than e! by NotQuiteReal · · Score: 4, Funny

    i can recite the value for SQRT(-1)!

    --
    This issue is a bit more complicated than you think.
  17. Forget it's pi.... by Starker_Kull · · Score: 3, Insightful

    ...I can't imagine memorizing 100,000 ANYTHING. Most people know about 25,000 words, 1,000 or so people, etc. - there is a certain amazement at what the human mind is capable of. Can you imagine if he memorized 100,000 faces and names? 100,000 cities and populations? It is astonishing how much information we can learn...

  18. Just 1 digit more accuracy ... how about 3 or 4 by Skapare · · Score: 5, Interesting

    OK, so you really meant 355/113. The value of that fraction is actually accurate to 7 digits, which is 1 digit more than how it is expressed in whole fraction form. But if you look further, you can find a fraction that has an accuracy that is 3 digits more than the total number of digits in the fraction. That fraction is (with digits chopped so it doesn't get mangled in Slashdot HTML):

    1901870728 5669230760 9014394471 4770339621 5907683135 4633719252 6115562704 3396809635 6432000780 8107929370 2997523451 8768883574 1387003036 8533612856 7115805986 7702399073 2279944269 0522019469 9766118756 0590556190 3648850292 8002591

    ... divided by ...

    6053842551 4642032610 2361023215 9405317163 9147815034 5020739231 2531721347 4068823247 6946000058 7137745497 9656144746 8267746412 8740227175 4410094658 7144148739 6268034351 3347328160 6663121381 1257617460 3015134435 3855924025 288111

    That's 217 numerator digits and 216 denominator digits for a total of 433 digits that gives PI to 436 digits. It doesn't get any better until a fraction with 14593 digits in both numerator and denominator for a total of 29186 digits that gives PI to an accuracy of 29190 digits, 4 more digits than in the fraction.

    But 355/113 is easier to remember and 355/133 is apparently easier to type :-)

    --
    now we need to go OSS in diesel cars