Man wins world record for pi calculation

Discussion in 'Physics & Math' started by Quantum Quack, Jan 22, 2011.

  1. Quantum Quack Life's a tease... Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    23,328
    Just a bit of news:


    A Japanese businessman using a home-built computer has taken calculations of the mathematical concept of pi to the trillions of digits and won a world record for his labours.

    Shigeru Kondo, a systems engineer in his 50s at a food company in the central Japanese prefecture of Nagano, calculated pi - the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter - to five trillion digits, almost doubling the accuracy of the previous world record.

    Last week the calculation was recognised by Guinness World Records with a certificate mailed to Mr Kondo, who said he began the calculations simply as a hobby.

    "I really want to praise my computer, which calculated continuously for three months without complaint," he told the Chunichi Shimbun daily.

    He shared the honour with US computer science student Alexander Yee, who programmed the application software and liaised with Mr Kondo by email.

    Using parts from local warehouses and online stores, Mr Kondo assembled a desktop computer that featured two high-end Intel processors and 20 external hard drives.

    After 90 days of non-stop processing, he obtained a string of five trillion numbers that defined pi.

    He verified the result with different methods, which alone took 64 hours.

    The previous record, set by a French software consultant in January 2010, was around 2.7 trillion digits.

    Calculating a more accurate pi, which is believed to go on forever, has been a challenge for scholars for thousands of years, ever since the parameter was used in ancient Egypt.

    Mr Kondo is now trying to calculate pi to 10 trillion digits.

    "If everything goes well, I should reach that point in July. I'm really looking forward to that," he said.

    - Reuters

    c/o http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/01/21/3118521.htm
     
  2. Google AdSense Guest Advertisement



    to hide all adverts.
  3. Ophiolite Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    9,232
    Seems like he's just going round in circles.
     
  4. Google AdSense Guest Advertisement



    to hide all adverts.
  5. Pinwheel Banned Banned

    Messages:
    2,424
    What an irrational pursuit.
     
  6. Google AdSense Guest Advertisement



    to hide all adverts.
  7. jmpet Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    1,891
    The pursuit of pi has merit. Don't know why it's here in Pseudoscience.

    Pi represents the three dimensional roundness of 3D objects, based on 2D numbers. In this regard, it is an exercise in futility as it's GOTTA BE infinite.

    Pi is something worthy of long debate in normal forums for its simplcity yet complexity. Maybe I'll start a thread.
     
  8. Ophiolite Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    9,232
    No one said it didn't. Why do you think they did?

    I said the guy was going around in circles - what else would you do with pi? Pinwheel said it was an irrational pursuit. Determining an irrational number to many places is clearly the pursuit of the irrational.

    Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!

     
  9. keith1 Guest

    Pi is a dynamic of space-time curvature, thus a revealing pursuit?

    --3.1459....(More than triple, but not much more).

    --....9937....(at 47 decimal places, is a stable marker).

    --....9986....(at 82 decimal places, is a stable marker).

    To be continued...(a most strong and stable marker would be a ....9999....)
     
  10. rpenner Fully Wired Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    4,833
    http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=N[Pi,769] ends in 9999998... but what's your point?

    Pi is not measured from space-time curvature, but is calculated from first principles based on the definition in Euclidean space. The base-ten representation has no intrinsic value in number theory.
     
  11. keith1 Guest

    I said "dynamic", you said "not measured". Still, 9999998 is an interesting "spike" that YOU found. (I've never looked at pi beyond 100 decimal places before).
    Seems interesting too, that the "9" is the only number (in 769) that has a long repeating segment like that.

    I would have to look at a million decimal places before I would venture a statement. I think I'll remain silent, and let other's who are interested do that work.
     
  12. dbnp48 Q.E.D. Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    312
    Does anyone know if there is any practical use for pi to large number of decimal places?
     
    Last edited: Jan 25, 2011
  13. rpenner Fully Wired Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    4,833
    Testing computers. You run two different methodologies against each other and both should converge to the same number. It burns a lot of CPU power and exercises RAM and in some systems, disk as well.
     
  14. AlphaNumeric Fully ionized Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    6,702
    Believed? Its been known for more than 200 years! Who do they get to write these articles?
     
  15. Stryder Keeper of "good" ideas. Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    13,105
    Pi is also extremely handy when representing and planning how a Singularity is built (at least in a Simulated or Emulated environment) since it's a "core" value that's recursively used in many other mathematical applications.
     
  16. funkstar ratsknuf Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    1,390
    I was just about to comment on this as well.

    Belief has nothing to do with it.
     
  17. keith1 Guest

    Long digit
    segments of "9"
    found in Pi
    (< 2 billionth
    decimal places):...................Decimal placement of first "9" digit of listed segment:

    99999999............................. 36,356,642(th)
    99999999............................. 66,780,105
    9999999............................. 196,790,272
    9999998............................. 198,588,770
    999999999......................... 564,665,206
    999999999......................... 640,787,382
    999999999....................... 1,943,295,791
    (one example > 2 billionth decimal places):
    999999999999**............ 12,479,021,132 (for 1/pi) **

    Frequency distribution for pi (up to 59 bil. decimal places) ** of any one particular digit, shows no significant variation for any one particular digit.

    Question: Wouldn't even frequency distribution and the seemingly lengthening "9 segment" displayed above, paradoxically conflict, if (or when) that segment reaches infinite lengths?

    http://www.cecm.sfu.ca/~jborwein/Kanada_50b.html
    **courtesy: Yasumasa Kanada, Computer Centre, University of Tokyo
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Feb 6, 2011
  18. rpenner Fully Wired Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    4,833
    At finite index there begins no infinite sequence of 9's in the decimal expansion of pi, or else pi would be rational when it is known that pi is not just irrational but transcendental.

    You don't seem to have a rational motivation for this study.
     
  19. keith1 Guest

    Thank you for your reply. I didn't spend much time on it.
     
  20. EmptyForceOfChi Banned Banned

    Messages:
    10,848
    Greetings QQ


    Kudos on his hard work, wow to think he actualy went this far into the sequence I stopped way before he did I got so bored.



    Peace.
     
  21. birch Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    5,077
    can autistic people do this easily?
     
  22. rpenner Fully Wired Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    4,833
    You are aware that even writing out 100 digits per second, it would take over 300 years to get to even 1 trillion digits, right?

    This was no work by an autistic or normal human brain, but of a computer enthusiast with a modern high-end workstation and freely available software.
     
  23. EmptyForceOfChi Banned Banned

    Messages:
    10,848
    Sure I can write out Pie sequences 500 digits per split second while i am making breakfast.


    Peace.
     

Share This Page