The number Pi

12 Stories

A Possible New Pi Record, and Why It Even Matters

Swiss researchers say they used a supercomputer to determine 62.8T places

(Newser) - A human being managed to memorize the mathematical constant pi to 70,000 decimal places, a feat Rajveer Meena verified in March 2015 by reciting it out loud over the course of almost 10 hours. A supercomputer has further trounced that number, say Swiss researchers, who on Monday announced they...

The World Has a New Pi Champ
The World Has
a New Pi Champ
the Rundown
Mar 14, 2019 12:25 PM CDT

The World Has a New Pi Champ

Google's Emma Iwao calculates it to 31 trillion digits

(Newser) - It's Pi Day, the 3/14 celebration of perhaps the most famous number in history. Google is celebrating with a record-breaking feat: One of its employees calculated pi to 31 trillion digits, 9 trillion more than the previous record, with help from cloud computing, reports the BBC . Emma Hauka Iwao...

Celebrate Pi Day With Math...or Pie
8 Things to Know on
the 29th Annual Pi Day
The Rundown
Mar 14, 2017 12:45 PM CDT

8 Things to Know on the 29th Annual Pi Day

It's a great day to celebrate with math...or pie

(Newser) - Tuesday is Pi Day, the only holiday that caters exclusively to math nerds who love puns and baked goods. Pi is the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter, a never-ending number that begins 3.14—hence it being honored on March 14. Here are eight things to...

Here Are 3.14-Plus Fun Ways to Celebrate Pi Day

Including checking out old-time pie pics, learning how to cut the perfect slice

(Newser) - Time is a flat circle in which we do the same things over and over again—or, in the case of Pi Day, the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter, celebrated over and over again each year on March 14. Here's 2016's homage...

Pi Day Is Especially Remarkable This Year

Math fans, get excited for 9:26am

(Newser) - It's a big day for math lovers—even bigger than your typical Pi Day . The event is celebrated on March 14, or 3/14, each year in honor of the number, whose first digits are 3.14. But a single second this year marks a once-in-a-century occurrence that covers the...

Girl, 13, Has Memorized 2.3K Digits of Pi
 Girl, 13, Has 
 Memorized 
 2.3K Digits of Pi 
3.14159265...
Mar 20, 2014 12:55 PM CDT

Girl, 13, Has Memorized 2.3K Digits of Pi

She recites 1.7K in competition to win prize

(Newser) - On Friday, March 14—dubbed "Pi Day" because, well, 3/14—13-year-old Rachel Ooi won $314.15 (yes, 1 and 5 are the next two digits in pi) by reciting 1,715 digits of pi from memory. And that's not the best she can do: Ooi tells the Tennessean...

Happy Pi Day
 Happy Pi Day 
Mar 14, 2013 3:14 PM CDT

Happy Pi Day

It's a happy occasion for number nerds

(Newser) - Microsoft is offering 3.14% off Dell tablets today, notes Time . The Your Pie pizza chain is offering pizzas for $3.14 all day in the Southeast. And Caltech students began a pie party at 1:59am featuring 130 pies—26 varieties of five each. Which, as the Pasadena Sun...

Mathematician Calculates Pi to 10T Digits

Breaks own previous record of 5T digits

(Newser) - A Japanese man used his homemade computer to calculate the value of pi to 10 trillion digits, breaking the 5-trillion-digit record he himself set last August . Systems engineer Shigeru Kondo, 56, started crunching the numbers on a computer using a 48-terabyte hard drive in October and finished Sunday, the Telegraph...

Forget Pi, Here Comes Tau
 Forget Pi, 
 Here Comes Tau 
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Jul 2, 2011 1:30 PM CDT

Forget Pi, Here Comes Tau

Using a new constant would simplify things, say experts

(Newser) - You don't need to be a mathematician to appreciate pi: Children everywhere can tell you it's 3.14, and it's even celebrated on 3-14. But now experts are arguing that pi, which references the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter, be replaced with a...

Number Nerds + Pi Day = Big Geek Fun
Number Nerds + Pi Day =
Big Geek Fun
3.14159
Mar 14, 2010 1:59 PM CDT

Number Nerds + Pi Day = Big Geek Fun

Eat some pie, write a 'pi-ku,' and wish Albert Einstein a happy birthday

(Newser) - Today is 3/14, better known to the math-loving community as Pi Day, an international celebration of the irrational number and, for some, its almost-namesake dessert. In honor of the occasion, the iconic logo on the Google homepage has transformed into a collection of formulas that use pi. To celebrate, write...

Scientist Smashes Pi Record
 Scientist Smashes Pi Record 
3.14159265...
Jan 7, 2010 2:38 PM CST

Scientist Smashes Pi Record

He calculates number to 2.7 trillion digits on his home PC

(Newser) - A French scientist shattered the record for calculated digits of Pi, working the number out to 2.7 trillion decimal places—and he did it with a home PC. Fabrice Bellard beat the previous record by 100 billion digits, using a new software algorithm he claims is 20 times faster...

Celebrate pi, It's 3/14!
 Celebrate pi, It's 3/14! 
Mar 14, 2008 2:00 PM CDT

Celebrate pi, It's 3/14!

Classrooms everywhere fete a most mathematical holiday

(Newser) - Math lovers, rejoice, for today is Pi Day, celebrated in classrooms around the country—preferably at 1:59, which, on 3/14, nearly matches 3.14159, the famed irrational number’s first six digits. “What’s fun about pi is that everyone knows the number,” a math professor tells...

12 Stories