Michael Naylor, WWU

Just how useful is it to know the digits of pi beyond, say, 3.14159? Suppose you know the universe is 30 billion light years 'across,' and you want to know its perimeter. If you use pi = 3.14 in your 2-pi-r-calculation, you'll be off by millions of lightyears. The more digits of pi you know, the greater your accuracy. How many digits of pi would you need to calculate the circumference of the universe to within one angstrom? 1000? 2000? 5000?

Believe it or not, we'd need only 35. Each digit of pi you add increases the accuracy by a power of 10, so 9 digits will get you down to an accuracy of 1 light year, 22 digits will get you an accuracy of kilometers (1 light year = 9.46e12 km, or nearly 10 trillion km), 25 digits will get you down to meters, and 35 will get you down to angstroms. With the way the universe has been expanding lately, you'll probably want to learn a few more, just to be safe.

Send me the reason why you've memorized pi, and I'll add you and the number of digits you've memorized to this page.

Memorizing the digits of pi in the usual order seems too chaotic. I'm memorizing them systematically, starting with the 1's. - Ziggy (1 billion digits +)

Memorizing pi is something you can do even if you're not wearing pants. We need more things like that. - D. C. "Mad Dog" Froemke (14 digits)

It was either memorizing 10 digits of pi or eating 10 pieces of pie. I am watching my weight. - Debbie, Just Debbie

I am trying to get in touch with all aspects of my personality. This is my attempt at fostering my geeky side. love, bud (40 digits)

I memorize pi because it is fun. Pi has a certain tune to its numbers. Also, It's a neat challenge. 3.141592653589793238462638. Pi has (at least from my view) an neat rhythm in groups of four, after 141592 (which is a big cliche' anyway, and easy to remember) it follows groups of four: 3.141592 -6535- -8979- -3238- -4626- etc. also even further: 3.141592 (65-35) (89-79) (32-38) (46-26). It has a beat like: three point one four one five nine two... six FIVE three FIVE, eight NINE seven NINE, three TWO three EIGHT, four SIX two SIX and on. - Andrew Yeats (24 digits)

I memorized the first 334 numbers of pi because every 100 I memorized my math teacher wouln't give our class homework! - Garrett Erkenbeck

I have learned the first 56 digits of pi. My hobby is doing obscure things. Having a goal of making a rubberband ball 850 pounds is obscure. Making a truth table with all the letters of the alphabet is also obscure. Memorizing pi is also obscure. Yes I am trying to do these things. Don't laugh. Just be amazed. - Mohammad Shuja "Shorty" Shafqat

It's a great way to flood chatrooms with something other than useless babble. Besides, if my pet glockenspiel can do it, why can't I? - Stickman (42 digits if you count the '3' and the '.' [that would be 40 -mn])

Last week I duplicated the cube, trisected an angle, and divided by zero. This week I will memorize all of the digits of pi. - J. B.

I was pretty proud of myself for learning the first digit of pi, but now you tell me that the 3 doesn't count!?!?! Jerks. - D. K.

I know 101 digits of pi by heart because I had to know more digits than my classmate, and to annoy our mathematics teacher by saying the digits while we were having mathematics. - B.D.

So many people conceptualize pi as a number that I needed a way I could talk to them about it. - M.C. (4 digits)
I memorized the first Hundred #s for 10 free homework grades- Jason Istvan

Well, as a matter of fact I just got started, so I'm only at 20 digits right now. But I'm quite fascinated by the activity. I think it's the combination of useless and meaningful that does it. - Mari

I wanted to impress my friends. 20 digits so far, but I am working on it, and I just started. - "P.B." (Greeneville, TN)

Pi is the number 2 B
So if you wanna see
Why i like pi so much
Well I'll tell you a whole bunch, NOT!!!...
Pi is cool, you fool!!! - W.W.(200 digits)

My wife openly mocks me for wasting neuroRAM on pi, but what the hay (my experience is that there is just something about memorizing pi that invites open mocking). Anyway, since I finished organic chem, I've had a huge block of storage space just waiting to be filled. Sports statistics only go so far, and pi is much more effective in filling the void. - G.Lathum (555 digits).

Many people ask me why I would be geeky enough to memorize pi during my spare time. I find it amazing that with our advanced mathmatics, we can't even find something as simple as the exact ratio of a circumfrence of a circle and its diameter. Plus, pi is definitely one of the most mysterious and romantic characters in the world. It's what you would write in a love letter: "My love for you is like pi--My love for you is endless; my love for you is irrational; my love for you cannot be shown in fraction form." Why memorize pi? Saying it is useless is like saying the English language is only good enough for ordering a Bigmac at McDonalds. - Benjamin Yang, Utah (25 digits and still going)

In psychology we were studying memory. Pi is considered the ultimate test of memory. The top two pi-reciters are currently both men. After commenting on this, my psych class challenged me to memorize one hundred, and I'm on my way to many more, to their dismay! (129 digits) -Valerie Lewis

I memorized pi just for the hell of it. I had heard of people doing it and I said: "Why can't I?" So I did. It's also fun to impress my friends.--Craig Miller (88 digits)

i was going through the book of world records and it said someone got to 40,000 memorized. one day me and my friends were playing around and i said, "i'm gonna memorize Pi and beat that person"....my friends didn't believe me so I learned the first 20 within a month and i'm still going...i just got the first 4000 digits and my goal is to have them all memorized by the year 2000....pretty big goal for a 14 year old huh?? - *Sweetie* - 30 something so far!!!

Because I am that bored, It is there, I can Impress my friends, and I have that much free time. Number of digits? Only 80-Keith Craig

To me, pi represents the beauty of mathematics, the beauty of the world we live in. This unatainable, irrational, transcendental number is used to describe the perfect symmetry of circles and spheres. Memorizing pi is a step forward in the search for a pattern in pi, for regularity in chaos in general. But if I've totally lost you, let's just say it's great for shock value ;) -Liz (108+ digits)

They laughed - they Laughed! at me, but now it is I who will have the last laugh. Ha! Ha ha hahahaha! HA! - J.Fish (900 digits)

My lifetime goal is to memorize 50,000 and get into the Guinness book. Barring that, I just want to be as big a nerd as possible. Paul Cole (500 digits)

When people come and ask me what I'm doing and I don't want to talk to them I say, "I'm memorising Pi want to hear what I have so far?" Then without waiting for the answer I start reciting! This is a great way to get people away from you!(22 digits and still going) Walter Weiss

I knew the first ten digits of pi at age nine. But know I'm getting in to the 50's It keeps going and going. - I.C Wenner

Why did I memorize 500 digits of pi once? For the women. - Chris R. Siegert Northwestern University, Evanston, IL. USA

I never wanted to memorize pi. I memorized e instead, and it was a long time ago. The only reason was because it felt good. I enjoyed reading all the excellent reasons for memorizing pi - and maybe I'll expand on the 8 or 9 digits that have just naturally stuck with me. Hope you don't mind if I copy some of the best reasons for my students to get them interested (although I've never convinced a single one of them to memorize e beyond 2.7)! BPenn

Because I am that bored, It is there, I can Impress my friends, and I have that much free time. Number of digits? Only 80 - Keith Craig

Why?
1) Pi is . . . fascinating. I don't know why, it just is.
2) Who knows, maybe it'll turn out to be useful someday.
3) Have you ever seen the look on someone's face when you recite the first 100 digits?
4) I have no life and too much spare time.
5) It's impressive.
6) I'm weird like that.
-me (I've got 35, my goal is 100 by next month)

I started checking out random pages one night when I was bored. I came across one dedicated to pi and the owner had over 100 digits memorized. I thought it was cool and decided to give it a try. In no time at all, I soon came upon the 100-digit milestone. However, my thirst was not quenched and I kept going. I've celebrated Pi Day, made a Pi Necklace which I wear everyday, and carved pi into my pot pies at lunch. I am known as "that pi girl." The greatest part is, I've started a trend! My friends are now unintentionally memorizing it just because they've heard me say it so much. And this year, instead of cake, I'm getting a "Happy 18th Birthday Venus" birthday pie! I also love the looks I get and I like to show off, too. *grin*
--Venus (162 memorized and still going)

Because I finished memorizing the number e and the root of 2 (it turns out that they end - who knew?!)
M. Aleksiuk (5 digits)

Hey--It's better than memorizing some other things which I've seen people memorize!
John L (66 digits)

I found another juggler who likes memorising pi. You will find me at digit number 402.
Chris

I read about memorizing it in a book by Robert Fulghum. My husband always makes fun of me because I know different number combinations, like phone numbers. I thought that I could annoy those around me by reciting it in a 3 digit pattern. Don't get me started on the number 3!
At 40 digits and furthering my search, Amanda K

I memorized ALL the digits of pi.......write me,
PI-Boy C/O Dorothea Dix Mental Hospital, Raleigh, N.C.........

the current challenge is to see who can memo. it to 100 dp, im @ 45 now so 55 dp 2 go
Ian C.

I memorized 50 digits of pi in college ..... under hypnosis or something like that from a fellow chemistry major.
Llew N.

I have memorized pi because My teachers' incompetence has driven me mad and all I do now is look around the room, memorizing the 100+digits she has posted up. Math sucks, but pi is tight.
James B. (66 digits)

I memorized about 50 digits when I was 11 so that my father (a nuclear engineer) would pay more attention to me. The routine of reciting Pi to him has become a fond memory.
Ana (40 years old, 32 digits - The string is shrinking with time and disuse.)

I memorized pi because I wanted too. A friend of mine thought he was hot stuff because he had 12 digets. The next day, I had 20, a few minutes after 30, and after that, 50! I'm up over 55 now and it's still growing every time I have a minute!
Pam

I memorized 25 digits of pi-3.141592653589793238462638!! I just started...I did it to become a cowdontist!!!

Memorized to 1000 digits. I thought the record was 707. Wrong! That was in 1987. It's mental exercise.
Ken

I am a 1600 meter runner in track and Pi comes in handy when I am pacing
myself. Every 50 meters I recite the first 64 digits in my head as fast as I
can and if I say it before 50 meters then I am running too slow. The reason
why I only know the first 64 is that it was all that was on the wall of my
classroom 2 years ago. I feel as if I am retarded because I say it when I
walk down the halls of school just so that I will not forget it. In bed when
I am trying to hold my breath for over 2 minutes I just recite pi as many
times as I can to the 64th digit to keep me busy and not think about my face
turning purple. People at school think I have too much time on my hands. My
mom thinks I have a photographic memory. I will see. My goal is 1000 by
June 15th which is the last day of school. I only have 936 digits to go. I
can do it if I memorize 11 digits a day and it will keep me busy.
- Fluffy Meow Meow

"I memorized the first 100 digits of pi, just to be able to say that I
memorized the first 100 digits of pi. It tends to impress other
highschoolers. (I'm 15 years old)" - Justin

I started memorizing pi because a friend told me that I needed to do
something besides calculus homework. I printed off the first 10,000 and
by the end of the day had 70 digits memorized. I recited them to my
friend and he told me I needed a different hobby.

A friend of mine said he had to memorize the first 20 numbers of pi for a
math class, and I asked him to write them down for me. I dont have a great
memory, yet it took me less than 5 minutes to memorize them. For awhile I
was happy with that and recently I got bored and decided to set a goal of 500
for myself. I dont know if I'll definitly stop there, but its something to
look forward to. I figure if I know something like that, no one can ever say
I dont know anything. Ashley ( 65 digits )

the current challenge is to see who can memo. it to 100 dp, im @ 45 now so 55 dp 2 go

I learnt pi, because I was bored in religion education, pi is more religic than everything he said (and pi isnt even religieus). But I saw that pi was very easy to learn, if you tap it in on the numpad of a calculator, you can see all figures. Those figures are much easier to memorise than the numbers themselves (I know it by heart because if I close my eyes, I see the numpad in my mind). And, I didnt repeat pi for six months, but i still knew it! So, once you know it, it's for the rest of your life and it is impressing and needless. fantastic!

I've always adored pi, but never acted upon it. Since I am a math major, at least I can use that as an excuse...but truthfully I guess my nerdiness got the best of me. I'm only up to 40 now, but working for couple hundred! 3.1415926535897932384626433832795028841971...I was even Pi last Halloween!!!!!
-Jen with one n!

[Jen elaborates: Well I wore all black, and molded a huge pi symbol out of wire (from the wings of an angel costume) and that went from my shoulders to my knees, and the top part stuck out off my shoulders about 4 inches on either side. I had about 5000 digits printed out and pasted on the back of the costume. And where the pi symbol ended at my knees, from my knees to my ankles I sewed on all the formulas I could think of that included pi. It was actually pretty entertaining! My Math professors got a big kick out it! Thats probably the most fun I've ever had with Halloween :-) ]

I started memorizing it because one of my friends had and he could rattle off about 40 of 'em. I thought it was cool so I started to memorize it too. But since then I've gone on the internet and found out how much I really like pi. I've memorized 55 digits (3.141592653589793238462643383279502884197169399375105820) so far but my goal is at least 100. I can rattle off about 37 before I have to slow down and think about what the digits are. By the way, judging by some of the other reasons people have sent in, I think I'm one of the youngest ones; 13 years old. I'm sorry if the last statement seemed arrogant or anything, I didn't mean it to be. -- Kevin (55 digits)

I did it for the fame really. I wanted to beat the Guinness Book World Record Challenge. At first, all I knew was a measly 32 digits. I knew this for about a year. Then I actually started to try and memorize more digits of pi. Everyone thinks I have too much time on my hands and crazy but I get a kick out of it. In a matter of a few days (total time was about 1.5 hrs), I went from knowing only 32 numbers to a whopping 250+ digits. In addition, I can recite about the first 100 digits with such precision and quickness that if one was to verify the digits say on a piece of paper, chances are that person would have a hard time keeping up. I use this easy memory trick in order to accomplish this goal. But even now, I wasn't really trying to memorize a lot of numbers due to school work. Soon however, I will start getting back into the memorization process and start thrilling and scaring people everywhere. Only 16 Years Young and Still Goin' Strong. -- Kevin aka "Fuddie"

i decided to start memorizing pi a few days ago. to make it easier, i decided to memorize a certain number of digits a day. my system is to take the last digit i memorized from yesterday, and take that many digits for today to add on! i started with the 3, then the .141, and then 5, then the 92653, and so on. im at 54 digits after the decimal point, and am not sure what to do... --Brian Matthew

Would you believe I just wanted to get my name on your web page! Cheers, Paul Morris (1,010 digits) - Australia

my goal is to get to 314 digits, and then after that 3,141 digits, and so on. i first started memorizing pi because my geometry teacher wanted us to use the pi button on our sci calculators for our assignments, but i didn't have a sci calculator at the time, so i just memorized the numbers that i needed. after that, i found out that ppl were impressed, so i memorized more. i love pi. its amazing how a seemingly random number can be so relevant to everything. my next task is to memorize e. another beautiful number. (btw, the meaning of life is at the end of pi) -- atom (50 digits pi, 10 digits e)

PS: btw, i found one incident where memorizing pi was useful. a poster at my school had a bunch of math stuff written on it, and at the end was a small piece of pi (3.1415926), but it was written wrong. they had switched the 926 around. i demanded that this blasphemy be removed from my sight, and so it was taken down. how could they mislead their faithful students?! but oh well, the world is safe now. -- atom (50, 10)

1. I'm the biggest nerd you've ever seen. I've been called a super-advanced-ultra-high-level-can't-achieve-higherness-nerd, and I just can't resist memorizing pi.
2. It's a really handy thing to have: to brag about, to recite when you're trying to ignore someone, to change the subject, etc.
3. To prove the power of the human spirit and human body. It's amazing what you can do if you set your mind to it, and it's amazing how powerful our brains are.

Last night I made a pledge that I would memorize 200 digits of pi this summer, but today I have gone from 20 to 50, so I'll have to bump that up to 500. --Cliff Smith, 3.14159265358979323846264338327950288419716939937510....

So years later, you can tell the guy who's getting the A+ in your calculus class, "I've forgotten more digits of pi than you'll ever know." -- Ryan (used to be 100 digits, now it's 10)

Because it looked like an easy way to gain entrance into the Guinness Book. Which seemed pretty cool back in high school. Look for me in the 1977 edition on page 51. -- Robert Miller (4000 digits)

I memorized the first 100 digits of Pi so that I could have another party trick/amusing useless trivia fact to share with others. I kind of split them into groups of 10 and memorized one group at a time. I found myself sort of saying them in a sing-song voice. Once I had memorized a group of 10, I tacked that on to what I already had memorized and said the whole thing about five times before going on to the next group. In case you're curious, my other one is knowing (and being able to spell) the longest word in the English language. Wanna hear it?!? Okay: Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis. It's an alleged lung disease caused by inhaling volcanic ash containing silica particles. Since it's an alleged disease, you can't find it in all dictionaries. But I do know that it is in the dictionary located in the East Wing on the fourth floor of Wilson Library, right next to the children's books. Just in case you need proof :) -- Claire Nissen

At the age of 70 I decided to see if my memory was failing. I memorised 100 numbers and then I decided to see how far I could go.I am 71 now and can on a good day get up to 420. A normal day 300. After a while you find that there are special ways to memorise batches. I use a list that was on some web site and they have split the numbers into lines of 6 sections of 10 numbers.
So it it quite easy to go to the 4th line and recite a particular line. There are lots of little tricks you can use. I don't know whether I can be bothered to try for 500. But it is a possibility. I find that it does improve memory and when I wake during the night I count pi instead of sheep. -- Keith Kirk

I'm a geek. It's just more evidence of my lack of any life. I began today as a joke and have the first 50 so far! My goal: 500 by the end of the year; it's November now. It'll keep me awake in school... -- Natalie

The reason ive memorized pi is cause in my geometry course in which i already know everything on the wall my teachor has pi written to the 1,000 decimel... so far ive memorzed 3.141592653589793238462643... still three more quarters til algebra 2!. --Lauren Dandridge

Hi. you are waisting your time. pi not equal 3.1415926...... pi equal sqrt 10=3.1622776....... thanks, magdy farra

I'm up to 40. When I start losing control I recite mentally stairing a person straight in his eyes: 3 point one four one five nine two....................................it's amazingly calming. Cordialmente, FJF

I have just finished memorising 1000 digits of pi. My is to get into Limca Book of records and then guiness book of records. -- M Shravan Kumar, Jabalpur M.P., India

I memorized pi while sitting in Calculus my senior year of high school. It was up on the wall and I understood calculus so I thought pi was the way to go. There were only 85 digits on the wall but I'm thinking of taking it up as a hobby now. T.W. (85 digits)

I memorize it because I'm out of my mind, and have nothing better to do -- I memorized 54 digits - Theresa

I used to know pi to 35 decimal places (I made an Apple Pi startup screen - memorise while-U-wait) but now I get the sequences mixed up after about the 15th digit. I think Ziggy has the right idea, but why not start with the zeros? -- Angela Brett

In 6th grade my math textbook had 50 digits of pi and I always wanted to learn them. Later in 7th, i found the first 20 digits in my textbook, but I decided to take on the challenge and start with those. I wrote all 20 digits on a post-it-note, and at the time I thought it was a lot. Everyday I read the post-it-note, and by the end of a few weeks, I knew all 20 digits. My brother got facinated and so I always said them for him. Soon, I could say them very fast without even thinking about it. Now, I still know the first 20 digits of pi, and I have taught my brother too, but I have never actually learned more. It must have been a middle school thing, when you don't get homework and have time to memorie random things like pi. But even today, when I'm bored, I write out the first 20 digits of pi just to do something. --Monica Calbergern (20 digits)

I am only up to 314 digits, sad to say. I am currently an exchange student in Japan, and there are plenty of reasons to memorise pi..

1) Calm self
2) Recitation in Japanese to friend and foe alike
2.1) Something to practise my handwriting
2.7) My own curiosity..what comes next?
3) Its digits make great music
3.14 etc.) Enlightenment (Satori, in Japanese.)

Because I'm a beast having enjoyed eating half another beast. 999 so far. -- Matti Hellstrom (again)

Wow, you site is like some sort of beautiful cult for nerds like myself, and I want in! I think Im up to 25 digits now (and counting of course). -- AZebra

I memorized the first 100 digits of Pi so that I could have another party trick/amusing useless trivia fact to share with others. In case you're curious, my other one is knowing (and being able to spell) the longest word in the English language. Wanna hear it?!? Okay. Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis. It's an alleged lung disease caused by inhaling volcanic ash containing silica particles. Okay, I had the first...um...let me count...14 numbers memorized from high school. The rest I just printed off the internet and, well, memorized. It came easy to me for some reason. I kind of split them into groups of 10 and memorized one group at a time. I found myself sort of saying them in a sing-song voice. Once I had memorized a group of 10, I tacked that on to what I already had memorized and said the whole thing about five times before going on to the next group. -- Claire Nissen

I find that it does improve memory and when I wake during the night I count pi instead of sheep. -- Keith Kirk

Now i have memorised it up to 50 000 decimal places and now I am working on memorising it in matrix order. It
means I will be able to recall say, the 43246th number when I am asked to do so.
I am aiming for an official world record within a few weeks...............shanu

My best has been 51 digits, now i am back down to 20. However I am totally fascinated about this number. Inspite the fact of being insignifantly low (if regarded as quantity it is within the range that can be counted with our fingers) it has an infinite quality. No matter how many digits You know, You will never be able to predict the next one. A great deal of analysis and number theory is occupied with infinite series, that is adding up an infinite amount of terms to obtain one simple term with infinite quality. I use Eulers sum as example because I believe most of You are familier with the formula: sum[n=1 to infinity](1/nÓ) = PIÓ/6 There are zillions of more of such formulas that transform an infinite quantity (of terms) into an expression that is either a fraction, a product or a power of PI.

I am only up to 314 digits, sad to say. I am currently an exchange student in Japan, and there are plenty of reasons to memorise pi..

Because I'm a beast having enjoyed eating half another beast. 999 so far. /Matti Hellstrom (again)

Because ever since I've come to a school that specializes in engineering and computer science I've sort of lost that "nerd" title that I had in highschool and well, to be honest I sort of miss it. :) Oh, I've also found that reciting pi helps me relax. ~A.M.

I'm not a real nerd, but my boyfriend was. He had 50 digits of pi memorized and I was so impressed, but that night i went home and memorized 70. I used my cell phone to help me. My keypad made a little song when I typed them it that really helped me as I was memorizing. The part where it goes 323846264338327950 sounds really neat, I would suggest you try it at home, kids. Anyway, so I surprised my boyfriend by reciting it along with him and continuing after he stopped. Major victory for me, plus it's a cool party trick now, even though I only remember about 50 or 55. -A.C.

To get the ladies of course because if this doesn't i don't know what will (100 digits and counting so far) -- Matt

yeah, i was bored one day and decided to start memorizing pi. i wanted to becase i want to see just how many digits i can memorize. the first day i got 40 digits. i was tired the second day so i got only 10 digits more bringing me curently up to 50 digits. i'm hoping to memorize 25 more digits every day. --Serok

I memorized 14 digets of pi because i was board -- Paul W I forgot my trombone for band today, as it was 4/20 yesterday, so I needed to kill an hour and thus memorized the first 55 digits of Pi during rehearsal (also to see how much my memory has been messed up from smoking pot). Anyways, it was suprisingly fun so when I got home from school today I memorized some more. Now I have gotten to 127 digits and will continue tomorrow. I don't know how I managed 127 digits on my first day, but I cannot wait to ramble them to my calculus teacher. - dj_t0xic

I am in eighth grade now, and I knew about 34 digits unofficially at the start. Then, formally, I began to learn about 4+ digits a week, and when I got to 50 (all of this not counting 3 of course ^_^) I decided to stop, so I would not forget anything I had. But I review everything I know often, as to bring my memorization to the subconscious level. Going for 100 next year.(50 digits)

my coworkers teased me for not remembering 16 oz = 1 lb, so i've memorized 71 digits so far in 1 day... -JR

Hi
you are waisting your time
pi not equal 3.1415926......
pi equal sqrt 10=3.1622776........................................................................................................
thanks
magdy farra

The reason why I am trying to memorise "pi" which I've only got to 45 digits in about 3 weeks, because it would be great to be labelled as one of the people to know a reasonable amount of "pi". Me and my friend tries to remember "pi" with five digits at a time and that seems to be working. I am one of the only three students in my school to know this with two from year 7 and one in year year 8 while others only remember 3.14 for short. Well... for me to prove my 45 decimal places, here is "pi" as I know it, 3.141592653589793238462643383279502884197169399.

I have memoriized pi because I had a friend that challengend me to memorize more than him and we only had 1 week to do it ( the loser had to bake the winner a pi of the winners choice). On the 8th day we had to recite it to our teacher. The first 6 days I slacked off and forgot about it ( on the end of day 6 I only knew 3.14). soo therefor I had 1 day to memorize as much as I could. Instead of sleeping that day in Algebra, English and Biology I stared at a piece of paper. By the end of that day I had memorized 22. the next day I knew 25. my friend spent the whole week trying to momorize more than me. He momorized 18 and I memorized 25. I have now forgot pi up to the 20 digit soo I have started agean. By the way I made him bake me a blueberry pie. by the way the person who memorized it to beat his friend is named Austin M. Tucson AZ my math teacher Mr. Worrick

Why memorize pi? Why not! I mean, started out just memorizing because it impressed my friends, and also I'm the biggest nerd ever (Quantum mechanics at my age?) Everyone says I need a hobby, but this IS my hobby! I knew 120 digits already when I went to camp, but my counsoler said volenteered me to recite them in front of the 150 attendees, so I scrambled to get up to 200 dp (which I did) and then I forgot the last twenty when i was up there (the same twenty digits I remembered once I got down from the podium). And after summer vacation, I forgot all eighty I memorized at camp, so now I'm back down to 120. --- Dan (age 12!)

I would agree with Andrew Yeats, that Pi has a certain tune or rhythm to it. Doing obscure things is also fun, as "Shorty" Shafqat says (is this his real name?), and when you get that odd chance to demonstrate that you can recite Pi to 50 or more digits, people think you're NUTS. Having people think you're nuts can also be useful. I memorized 50 in about 3 days, and have the numbers going across my PC as a screensaver. I'm gonna go for 50 more.
Doug in Germany

i was bored in foods class, get it pi, foods class, i'm just he kind of person that would memoize it i guess, it hasnt impressed any ladies yet tho :( - Dave (35)

i am 13. i have found pi to 545 dp. i am obsessed with knowledge and pi is weird. -- DGill

I memorized pi to - How far? - you count, I love amazing my teachers with it, my teacher right now (eighth grade algebra) said "yeah pi is like 3.14 uh 2?" a person corected him and said "no its 3.1416" then another person said "no, its 3.14159" I couldn't resist , so I raised my hand and said " no its 3.141592653589793238462643383279502884197169..3...9....9.......3" (ps- I knew it farther, but if I recited it any farther, my teachers jaw was going to unhinge and fall to the floor) (all the kids knew I had pi memorized so they looked fine) then my tacher said " You're scaring me, moving on" It was hilarious! - amanda a or aa ps- I have it memorized to 110 and counting because I am a geek and have no life

my name is ryan pesavento and ive memorized 300 digets of pi because i am doing a contest in 6th grade

2005

My coworkers teased me for not remembering 16 oz = 1 lb, so i've memorized 71 digits so far in 1 day... -JR

In my 4th grade math class, we had a Pi Day and a competition for who could memorize the most digits. I memorized 426 digits. It really actually helps! - Red Sox Fan

Enough is enough -- only 503 digits. I came across a rhyme to memorize the first 20 digits of Pi. It was crude and difficult to use. The number of letters of each word in the rhyme was the next digit. Very un-nerdy and slow. I knew I could do better.
Having used Harry Lorraine & DeBono's mnemonic systems I gave it a try -t o 20 places. It worked fine but then the nerd in me took over. For the next couple of weeks I went up to 100 decimal places. Then months later finding myself bored during the evenings (a slow ISP via phone line and only direct-to-air TV) I plodded through the next 100 taking remarkably less time than the first century took to memorize. Finally I stopped after 502 decimal places. (501 & 502 being "98") a convenient and extremely accurate rounding factor to the 500th decimal place.

When I'm in a clear state of mind I can write down the 503 digit value in 15 to 20 minutes hitting 100% accuracy 4-out-of-5 times and usually only 1-3 digit errors the rest of the time. On my website www.poemsareforever.com I have added an excel spreadsheet for download under the heading "PI for the Nerds." It allows the 502 digits to be entered and validates each digit as you go. Just another nerdy time waster -- but fun.

My fiancee cannot understand why I do it. It was a great exercise in Mnemonics, it has an added side effect of improving my memory for other numbers, and keeps a 55 year old (mensan) mind in good working condition.

Nerding the Pi one further step:
I have reversed the mnemonics to be able to run the 503 digit number backwards and have added a mnemonics stream for the fist two numbers of each group of ten decimal places to enable me to access any digit rapidly in "Random access mode" as a party trick. This also allows me to check the number when written down and ensure it is correct -- but of course that takes significantly more time.

Thank you this opportunity to Brag about my success, and realize there are others who share my affliction.

Best wishes from Richard J Mills

HEY
WOW THE PI MEMORAMA REALLY HELPED ME. OUR MATH CLASS WAS HAVING A CONTEST ON WHO COULD MEMORIZE THE MOST DIGITS OF PI! IT YOU WON, YOU WOULD GET AN EXTRA A AND I REALLY NEED A HIGHER GRADE RIGHT NOW SO I HOW I WIN. IF YOU COULD, JUST TO START ME OF, COULD YOU SEND ME ANOTHER RIDDLE THING FOR THE NEXT 10 NUMBERS? IF YOU COULD, THAT WOULD BE GREAT. WELL THANKS AGAIN. FROM, ELMO

Hi, I'm Ashley (17) from England. I know pi to 300 dp, it started off as 20, then 58, then I learned the rest to raise money for charity (I raised £111 for the NSPCC). I find it interesting that other people actually memorise it as well.

i memorized 74 digits of pi in the seventh grade for an extra credit project. my pre-algebra teacher had a poster that depicted 74 digits plus "3", and challenged us to memorize it for 150 bonus points on whatever work we needed it on. who wouldn't do it? Kylie A.

I have memorized 100 digits of pi because an old math teacher said she would make me a shirt that says, "I Know 100 Pi". She never did- Collin-MN

My name is james and i have memorized 32 digits of pi. Why? Well i drove to new York and i had nothing better to do. my trip to chigago i intend on learning up to 100 digits.

2006

I memorized pi because it was Pi Day at my school, March 14. I memorized the first 42 digits in under 24 hours. It is an interesting fact that in Douglas Adams 6 times 9 is 42, and in pi the 41st and 42nd digits (not counting the 3) are 6 and 9.
So long and thanks for all the fish! Nicky G. 11 years old

I just wanted to. When I'm reciting it people will say "It's 3.141592654 not 3.1415926535..." because they use their calculators and that's all it shows. I made a pie on pi day! Peter (74 digits)

I'm learning pi in order to memorize all the number sequences (even infinite ones) in the entire universe, provided they are in the decimal system. I try to learn the digits in parts of 8, since poweroftwos are nice. I want to know the square of my age when i earn the holy age of 2^2^2, 12 days to go. [(256 - 40) digits] Erik

I am 14 years old...i have memorized 120 digits and still going to 250 because once i do my math teacher will give me an A for the whole year...he doesn't think i can do it but i know i can because im weird. Emily (120 digits)

Would u rather us memorize something in the genre of english! *screams in horror and runs far far away*-- (big ben (so many, i cant count that high))

I started memorizing Pi after watching an episode of "ZAP" on Public
Broadcast TV, where a little robot sings pi and there are evil
mathematicians zapping things. I think it made more sense to younger
kids, but I took the song and made it a cell phone ring tone. The
'insanity' escalated from there. If you, or anyone wants the pi song,
search the Internet for the song by "Hard N Firm" which they performed
on "ZAP". http://pi.ytmnd.com is also a good place to hear the song.
Right now, I'm around 40+ digits. David Bry

I have memorized 314 digits for math team well, sorta. we were at a meet and these guys asked us for "#'s " so we wrote all the digets we could think of and then we handed them the paper and from memory i resited it wille my friend counted and she found it ironic that i know 314 diget. hahhahaha i love PI it is great in spanish also!!!!
~Ema , NH

Hello, My name is J. Rock; i'm just paranoid enough to leave my first name unmentioned. I have memorized a grand 252 digits (and counting) of Pi. In an hour or two, i'll kick the pants off that Ryan Pesavento kid by about 100 digits. Haha. Anyhoo, I memorized Pi because I have nothing to do as important; and math has been my favorite class for 2 years running. I think everyone learns pi (nowadays) so they don't have to pull down people's jaws with their hands. :)

3.14159265358979323846264338327950
288419716939937510582097494459230
781640628620899862803482534211706
798214808651328230664709384460955
058223172535940812848111745028410
270193852110555964462294895493038
196442881097566593344612847564823
378678316527120190914...

Enjoy.

I memorized PI to 100 digits (plus learned the what-day-of-the-week-were-you-born math trick) so that when Rainman comes on TV (or really any discusson of autism or savants) I can pull these two trick outta my hat. FWIW, my friends think I'm a rather well functioning autistic fellow. :)

Toddc

I memorised pi to win a local pi memorising competition. The prize was an apple pie. I also love to look for patterns and palindromes. I could wait to get to 000 (it’s around 600), then I just kept going. (834 decimal places) -- Eva M.

I won a Pie for memorizing the first 215 numbers of Pi an I am still going. People are really starting to get annoyed, but my teacher loves it! (PiMaster, age 10)

without pi, the world wouldn't go 'round. hahahahahahaha good one huh? i know 378 digits. recited it today pi day 3/14/07 :] i also ate 2 pies with my friends -- Layne L.

Okay yesterday I was at 50, but now this is where I am: 3.14159265358
97932384626433832795028841971375105820974944
592307816406286208998628034825342117067982148083282306647
09384460955058223172535940812848111745028410270193...and that's all I can think of now plus I have a massive headache (Ouch!). So far it adds up to 150 decimal places. But they changed the start of the contest for tomorrow (3/15/2007). So yeah, I will definetly let you know how it goes. Hopefully, I can stop right there for the contest.

Thanks,
Tony

This page made possible by pi memorists like YOU! Thanks to everyone who's sent in a reason. Join the insanity: Send me the reason why you've memorized pi, and I'll add you and the number of digits you've memorized to this page.

Michael Naylor - http://www.ac.wwu.edu/~mnaylor - mnaylor@cc.wwu.edu