MATHEMATICS
Pi to 1,000 digits
Today is Pi Day, because the famous number starts 3.14 and today is March 14 (3/14), which lines up perfectly. But what does Pi to 1,000 digits really look like?
Pi is a number, strictly a mathematical constant, which is the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter. It’s fascinated people since the time of the ancient Babylonians and Egyptians who each had their own approximations of Pi. The Babylonians used a value of about 3.125 (from around 1900 BC), while the Egyptians used a value of about 3.1605 (from around 1650 BC).
We now know that the number starts 3.14, hence why March 14 (3/14) is Pi today, but as an irrational number Pi cannot be expressed as a simple fraction, and its decimal representation goes on forever without repeating. Honestly, try it, it never does.
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Why is Pi to 1,000 digits?
Here are the first 1,000 digits of Pi and please note the part in bold that is explained below:
3.1415926535 8979323846 2643383279 5028841971 6939937510 5820974944 5923078164 0628620899 8628034825 3421170679 8214808651 3282306647 0938446095 5058223172 5359408128 4811174502 8410270193 8521105559 6446229489 5493038196 4428810975 6659334461 2847564823 3786783165 2712019091 4564856692 3460348610 4543266482 1339360726 0249141273 7245870066 0631558817 4881520920 9628292540 9171536436 7892590360 0113305305 4882046652 1384146951 9415116094 3305727036 5759591953 0921861173 8193261179 3105118548 0744623799 6274956735 1885752724 8912279381 8301194912 9833673362 4406566430 8602139494 6395224737 1907021798 6094370277 0539217176 2931767523 8467481846 7669405132 0005681271 4526356082 7785771342 7577896091 7363717872 1468440901 2249534301 4654958537 1050792279 6892589235 4201995611 2129021960 8640344181 5981362977 4771309960 5187072113 4999999837 2978049951 0597317328 1609631859 5024459455 3469083026 4252230825 3344685035 2619311881 7101000313 7838752886 5875332083 8142061717 7669147303 5982534904 2875546873 1159562863 8823537875 9375195778 1857780532 1712268066 1300192787 6611195909 2164201989
Go on, memorise that!
What is the ‘Feynman Point’ in Pi?
Note the Feynman Point, the sequence of six consecutive 9s starting at the 762nd decimal place (in bold). It is named after physicist Richard Feynman, who once jokingly claimed he would like to memorize the digits of Pi up to that point and then say “and so on” to give the impression that Pi repeats from there.