![]() ![]() However, calculating pi values at a faster and most exact rate is crucial for research advancement. Knowing more digits of pi isn't particularly important for mathematics. It is twice the previous record of 31.4 trillion set by Google in 2019. ![]() On August 5, 2021, researchers from the University of Applied Sciences of the Grisons in Switzerland announced that they had set a new world record by calculating the famous number to its first 62.8 trillion decimal places! This is over 12 trillion more decimal places than the current record of 50 trillion set by Timothy Mullican in 2020. While individuals attempt to break records by memorizing pi's decimal points, scientists strive to find its most accurate value using new algorithms and powerful computers. Instead, it is infinitely long and never forms a repeating pattern. This means it can't be written as a fraction. The numerical constant - defined as the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter- is recognized by most as 3.14. ![]() Its 5.Swiss researchers recently calculated pI to its first 62.8 trillion decimal placesĮven those that do not particularly care for math will agree that pi, or “π," is fascinating. For his efforts he will be forever known (in the annals of science, and probably the Guinness Book of World Records) as the man who calculated the ten trillionth digit of pi. And of course there was that power bill itself which ran to something close to $400 a month as the computer ground away.īut in the end, it was Kondos persistence that paid off. Hard drive failures and the threat of power disruption from the earthquake in Japan back in March threatened the project many times. So intense was the computation that the computer alone caused the temperature in the room to hold steady at 104° F.Īlso, its not as easy to keep a custom built super-sized PC going full steam ahead twenty four hours day for months on end, as it might seem. Hes spent the better part of a year with the singular task of finding the ten trillionth digit, and of course all those past the five trillionth and one digit leading up to the ten trillionth, since he found the five trillionth digit just last year.įinding the value of pi to 10 trillion digits requires performing a lot of calculations (using software written by Yee), so many in fact, that Kondo had to add a lot more hard drive space than youd find on your average PC. In spite of that, its possible that none has ever been so obsessed as Kondo. Why this is so is hard to say, and so too is the seemingly endless progression of people that have set before themselves the task of calculating its digits. But because pi is an irrational number, its value cannot be written as an fraction which means when written as a decimal approximation, its numbers go on infinitely, and perhaps more importantly, never repeat.įor hundreds of years, pi has held fascination for mathematicians, scientists, philosophers and even regular run of the mill people. Believed to have been first described by Archimedes way back in the 3rd century BC, the ratio is used in all sorts of mathematical computations, not the least of which is in figuring out the area of a circle. Pi, the mathematical constant that describes the ratio of a circles circumference to its diameter, is generally rounded off to just two places, bringing it to 3.14.
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