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Blue Gene/P Reaches Sixty-Trillionth of Pi Squared
Reader Dr.Who notes that an Australian research team using IBM's Blue Gene/P supercomputer has calculated the sixty-trillionth binary digit of Pi-squared, a task which took several months of processing. Snipping from the article, the Dr. writes: "'A value of Pi to 40 digits would be more than enough to compute the circumference of the Milky Way galaxy to an error less than the size of a proton.' The article goes on to cite use of computationally complex algorithms to detect errors in computer hardware. The article references a blog which has more background. Disclaimers: I attended graduate school at U.C. Berkeley. I am presently employed by a software company that sells an infrastructure product named PI."
Re:How many digists of pi do you know?
... enough to compute the circumference of the Milky Way galaxy to an error less than the size of a proton
Why bother carrying out the computation to such precision when the error in your measurement of the radius (or diameter) would be so much bigger.
Life's a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.
Especially given that pi is a stupid constant that makes no sense.
GAAH! MY PRINTER IS ON FIRE!!! PUT IT OUT! PUT IT OUT!