Saturday, July 02, 2005
The Joy of Pi
A 59-year-old man from Chiba Prefecture, Japan recited pi to 83,431 digits in a new world record that is almost double the current Guinness Book record held by another Japanese. Akira Haraguchi started the challenge shortly after noon Friday and stopped early Saturday. This is his second attempt in less than a year; last September, he had already gotten to about 54,000 digits, but was forced to drop the challenge when the facility hosting the event closed for the night.
The effort didn't go entirely smoothly this time either. About 3 hours into the exercise, he lost his place and had to start over from the beginning! He probably also missed the 20,492nd digit, but hey, who's counting... In case you wonder, he is by profession a mental health counselor. Which makes me wonder whether sometimes the psychiatrist isn't crazier than the patient.
- posted by Woofwoof @ 9:49 AM
