Forced Order Minefield. Also try: Starts with 'Pi'. Support Sporcle. Get the ad-free and most optimal, full-featured Sporcle experience. Play Quiz. You got. Link that replays current quiz.
Link to next quiz in quiz playlist. It is important to know highly accurate values of the fundamental constants to make good predictions of phenomena involving physics, and the experimental determination of the constants can even help improve our understanding of the physical laws that govern the universe.
Believe it or not, there is a committee that makes recommendations about the values of these fundamental constants. Peter Mohr, a physicist who works for the Fundamental Constants Data Center at the National Institute for Standards and Technology , which is involved in calculating and disseminating the accepted CODATA values, says that the institute uses 32 significant digits of pi in their computations.
For programming geeks, this is called "quadruple precision. So NASA scientists keep the space station operational with only 15 or 16 significant digits of pi, and the fundamental constants of the universe only require And the world record for number of digits of pi computed is 10 trillion , at least as of October Pi computation can be used to test computer precision, but I think this is a symptom of pi-mania rather than a legitimate need for pi.
Other numbers could be used just as meaningfully, but we choose to use pi. It seems that we know, and strive to discover, many, many more digits of pi than we need for any practical application on Earth, or even in the part of space we can hope to get to right now. I guess the endlessness of the decimal representation just fascinates people. Haraguchi, the pi reciter, told The Japan Times that his memorization of pi is part of his quest for eternal truth.
For some, it is probably a challenge: How far can I go? We want to push our limits, and memorizing pages of numbers seems pointless until we give it the halo of pi. Coming back down to Earth, Pi Day and Pi Approximation Day are great reasons to have some dessert and contemplate the most transfixing transcendental. Usually, when we talk about pi, we talk about the number 3. So do we. Let's nerd out over it together. These scientists have not just broken the world record for the most calculated digits of pi, but they've smashed it, moving beyond the existing record of 50 trillion digits to reach a whopping They also completed their record run nearly four times faster than the previous one.
But the real question is: why should we care about all of those digits in the first place? Project leader Thomas Keller is very clear about what this world record represents—and doesn't. That part is key, because calculating pi has become a way for computers to flex their computational abilities, as programmers look toward extremely resource-intensive tasks, like modeling the universe or even making high-performance imagined worlds in video games.
Scientists can also use powerful supercomputers for practical tasks like mapping the human genome , or crunching all of the world's known chemical compounds in order to find candidates for new medicines.
So calculating pi itself, Keller says, is a fun and attention-grabbing side effect of supercomputing, rather than a specific goal. Setting the record is cool, but that's all it is. Maybe it's an overappreciation of pie the gastronomical one. I have to wonder if my own dodgy girth-gauging ability springs from years of looking in the mirror and being in denial that I've gained weight because of my sweet tooth.
Still curious about the decimal part of pi? Take a closer look at the paper gap in the third image above. Its curved extent from left to right is pi minus 3 namely 0. In this way you can literally see the decimal part of pi. A related bar bet involves finding a straight glass that is so tall that its height exceeds its circumference. It's not as easy "as it looks. The views expressed are those of the author s and are not necessarily those of Scientific American. He helped to spearhead Mathematics Awareness Month His articles for Scientific American can be found here.
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