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Nicholas Sze of Yahoo Finds Two-Quadrillionth Digit of Pi

Posted by timothy on from the I'm-a-good-guesser-in-binary-too dept.

gregg writes "A researcher has calculated the 2,000,000,000,000,000th digit of pi — and a few digits either side of it. Nicholas Sze, of technology firm Yahoo, determined that the digit — when expressed in binary — is 0."

21 of 299 comments (clear)

  1. Oh yeah? by The_mad_linguist · · Score: 4, Funny

    Well, the 243,000,500,000,000,000,002th digit of pi is "4".

    Go on, prove me wrong.

    1. Re:Oh yeah? by Dthief · · Score: 3, Funny

      I would argue the opposite

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      www.RacquetUp.org - Helping Detroit Youth
    2. Re:Oh yeah? by blair1q · · Score: 3, Funny

      No it's not. Because I say so.

      (See, I have a 90% chance of being right and you have a 10% chance of being right, so I win Monte Carlo testing, and I provided more evidence than you, so I win in a civil suit.)

    3. Re:Oh yeah? by Kinky+Bass+Junk · · Score: 4, Funny

      He might be the 2th fairy.

      --
      Anonymous Coward
    4. Re:Oh yeah? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      You can't handle the 2th!

  2. You fail math forever by $RANDOMLUSER · · Score: 4, Funny

    the digit - when expressed in binary - is 0.

    *facepalm* So that's 9 in decimal, right?

    --
    No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism. - Winston Churchill
    1. Re:You fail math forever by jd · · Score: 3, Funny

      Are you sure? 0, for large values of 0, approaches 1, for small values of 1.

      --
      It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
  3. If zero equals nothing then... by Daneurysm · · Score: 3, Funny

    ...move along people, nothing to see here.

  4. Put to good use by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Good to know they're putting those idle datacenters to good use. It's not like Yahoo has any real users anymore to generate load.

  5. Last Digit? by fandingo · · Score: 5, Funny

    "Interestingly, by some algebraic manipulations, (our) formula can compute pi with some bits skipped; in other words, it allows computing specific bits of pi," Mr Sze explained to BBC News.

    So why don't they just use their formula to compute the last digit of Pi already?
    That would be the rational approach. Who cares about the two quadrillionth digit??

    1. Re:Last Digit? by JesseL · · Score: 3, Funny

      Irrational numbers care not for your "rational approach".

      --
      "Prefiero morir de pie que vivir siempre arrodillado!"
  6. In binary? by silverpig · · Score: 4, Funny

    Geez, even I could have gotten it right half the time.

  7. Re:an so are an infinite other digits in that numb by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    Word. This discovery is useless. Now, if he'd managed to prove that the digit, when expressed in binary, is 2... That'd be something to shout about!

  8. What are the odds? by grot · · Score: 5, Funny

    the digit — when expressed in binary — is 0.

    Jeez, what are the odds of that?

  9. Re:So, what is the digit in decimal? by Gerald · · Score: 3, Funny

    It is, but it's encoded in UTF-35, not ASCII.

  10. Re:an so are an infinite other digits in that numb by MightyMartian · · Score: 4, Funny

    the digit -- when expressed in binary -- is 0.

    Amazing, so is Yahoo's profit projections within five years!

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    The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
  11. Re:Confirmation ? by Nimey · · Score: 3, Funny

    Netcraft.

    --
    Hail Eris, full of mischief...

    E pluribus sanguinem
  12. Re:Uh, so what? There are an infinite number of th by Surt · · Score: 3, Funny

    It's actually 13 orders of magnitude less significant than the 200th.

    --
    "Who is the Journal of Quantum Physics going to believe?" --Stephen Hawking
  13. Re:an so are an infinite other digits in that numb by quenda · · Score: 4, Funny

    The computation took 23 days on 1,000 of Yahoo's computers, racking up the equivalent of more than 500 years of a single computer's efforts.

    And before answering, the computer paused and said, "You're not going to like it ..."

  14. Re:A serious question by Surt · · Score: 3, Funny

    That's a rather ... odd ... reaction to my post. You're hoping to eliminate my superior genes so we don't wipe you out?

    --
    "Who is the Journal of Quantum Physics going to believe?" --Stephen Hawking
  15. Re:A serious question by PPH · · Score: 3, Funny

    A 'mine's bigger' sort of competition,

    Would that be diameter or circumference?

    --
    Have gnu, will travel.