How many decimals of Pi do you remember?

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SUMMARY

This forum discussion centers on the memorization of the digits of Pi, with participants sharing their personal experiences and techniques. One user, identified as pi-70679, has memorized Pi to 150 decimal places and practices daily to improve memory retention. Others express skepticism about the utility of memorizing such digits, suggesting that using a calculator is more practical. The conversation also touches on the enjoyment of memorization as a mental exercise and the use of mnemonic devices to aid in recalling numbers.

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  • Understanding of Pi and its significance in mathematics.
  • Familiarity with mnemonic techniques for memorization.
  • Basic knowledge of significant figures in calculations.
  • Awareness of the limitations of calculators regarding decimal precision.
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  • Explore mnemonic systems for memorizing large sequences of numbers.
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Students, educators, and anyone interested in enhancing their memory skills or understanding the cultural significance of Pi in mathematics.

  • #61
But can you recite all of it - backwards
 
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  • #62
3.14 :smile:
 
  • #63
3.141
 
  • #64
22/7
 
  • #65
mgb_phys said:
But can you recite all of it - backwards

Nope. I don't think I can recite anything backwards. I'm a forward thinker.
 
  • #66
I don't understand why people waste their time remembering the decimals of Pi, do something productive that will actually be of value! :rolleyes:
 
  • #67
exactly, one should also memorise e; Universal gas constant, R; Stefan-Boltzmann constant, σ; Speed of light in a vacuum, c; Planck constant, h; The density of air at various altitudes, ρ; etc, etc, etc... :-p
 
  • #68
Used to do 368 digits - can't anymore though, since it was so pointless. I can easily do about 262 now, though.
 
  • #69
Wow, a very tenacious thread with several necropostings all the way from 2003.

I find memorizing a couple of telephone #'s more practical.
 
  • #70
22/7
 
  • #71
I remember 3.14159. Recently I tried to add an additional 5 or 6 numbers onto it during my spare time. I remembered them for a little while, but now I can't remember them.
 
  • #72
I know all of the digits. :P
 
  • #73
I know all of the digits of 22/7 :biggrin:
 
  • #74
I know 6 digits, which is 3 more than I really need.

I know 7 digits of 22/7, which is definitely all I need.
 
  • #75
DR13 said:
I know all of the digits. :P

I know most of them, but I always forget the last one.

Seriously, I inadvertantly memorized 16 digits, since this is the approximate limit of double precision representation of floating point numbers in computers. In the old days, cut and paste was not as easy as today, and it was quicker to just type them in.

3.141592653589793
 
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  • #76
i remember:
pi=3.14159
e=2.718282
thats odd. i remember one more digit of e than of pi.
 
  • #77
3.14159
1.414
299,792,4458 m/s
2.718

That is all I remember off hand
 
  • #78
3.1415926535897932384626 (is that right?), then I am lost. Sometimes I can do more but without confidence.

In a humbling experience, I typed Pi[1,000,000] into Mathematica and it returned a few dozen digits of Pi asking if I really wanted it all. After I told it I wan't kidding it delivered all one million digits in a few seconds.
 
  • #79
if you know pi, you know e:

e_to_the_pi_times_i.png


http://xkcd.com/179/

:)
 
  • #80
Monique said:
I don't understand why people waste their time remembering the decimals of Pi, do something productive that will actually be of value! :rolleyes:
I saw this post yesterday and thought; maybe I should look at this pi! Doesn't take that long memorising raw numbers, now I know:
3.
1415926535 8979323846 2643383279 5028841971 6939937510 5820974944 59

I am sure you know much more digits than that, associated to different things than pi though. I mean 4 digits take ~1 minute to memorize, so the above string should take roughly 15 minutes. Not that much of your life.
 
  • #81
http://zs1.smbc-comics.com/comics/20100130.gif
 
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  • #82
I think the average scientist knows many more digits of pi than the average non-scientist, just because they use the number more often.
 
  • #83
I doubt that there is any scientist who knows less than 3.14.
 
  • #84
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  • #85
ideasrule said:
I think the average scientist knows many more digits of pi than the average non-scientist, just because they use the number more often.
Klockan3 said:
I doubt that there is any scientist who knows less than 3.14.
I add a couple of digits every decade or so. Now in my late 40's, I have 8 or 9 digits memorized.

In actual practice, my calculator has a π button clearly labeled. Instead of spending time memorizing many digits, I have memorized the following:
  • In Excel, =pi() results in π
  • if I don't know whether pi is defined in a given computer language, defining a variable ppii=4.*atan(1.) always works
 
  • #86
I've always known pi up to 15 digits or so, but I was never the type of guy who would memorize pi to a few hundred decimal places. I'd rather memorize the scale of everything in the universe from plank length to the size of our observable universe, the mass and half life of elements, reference numbers in physics, the names of stars, etc.

Edit: Memorized it to 100 digits just now to test my memory.
http://www.greenpeninc.com/memorize/memorize.php
Now trying to memorize e and phi to 100 digits just for amusement. Darn you PF!
 
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  • #87
3.14159
 
  • #88
must get really old now.. i only remember 3 decimals of pi.
 
  • #89
Felipe61 said:
must get really old now.. i only remember 3 decimals of pi.

if you remembered 3----would they still be called decimals?


(i just know one decimal of pi)
 
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  • #90
rewebster said:
if you remembered 3----would they still be called decimals?


(i just know one decimal of pi)
So, you say 3.1?