On August 17th of 2009, Associate Professor Daisuke Takahashi of the University of Tsukuba in Central Japan announced that his research team had uncovered more than an astounding 2.5 trillion decimals of the famous mathematical number Pi using the 47th most powerful supercomputer in the world at the time. That number more than doubled the previous Guinness Book world record from 2002 of about 1.2 trillion decimals, set by a different Japanese team.
And then on Dec. 31st of 2009, a French computer programmer, Fabrice Bellard, who claimed to have bested Prof. Takahashi’s work by a mere 120 billion digits or so using a considerably cheaper computer. While Mr. Bellard’s astounding success seemed more aimed at achieving a record with limited resources and more efficient coding, Prof. Takahashi indicated to me in an email interview just after his he announced his record in August that his work was more aimed intrinsically at Pi itself.
The following is the translation of that email conversation I had with Prof. Takahashi about is work on Pi:
Question: Why are you research Pi? What is your interest in it?
Prof. Takahashi: Circles and spheres are the most beautiful shapes in the world. If you want to know why I think so, it’s because they appear the same no matter where you look at them from. However, I also think that the infinitely continuing number 3.14…, derived from the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter, is extremely mysterious. That’s the reason I have an interest in it.
Since Archimedes calculated the value of Pi to 3.14 in the 3rd century B.C., there has been a continuing effort to find a more accurate value for Pi. The number of known digits has been considered one of the measurements of the progress of civilization. Also, calculating Pi can be used to validate the performance and reliability of computers. These are the reasons I am researching it.
(Continue reading Interview with the Japanese researcher who found 2.5 Trillion digits of Pi)
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