# Memorizing pi to the 8,784th digit: bad for you? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 16, 2006, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memorizing-pi-to-the-8-784th-digit-bad-for-you/348629 "2006-03-16T18:25:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/96bed5/32.png) [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patty_O_Furniture)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2006, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memorizing-pi-to-the-8-784th-digit-bad-for-you/348629/21 "2006-03-18T19:19:16Z")
Not bad for you perhaps, but not terribly good for your resume. Interviewer: What are your hobbies or accomplishments? 15 year-old kid: I’ve memorized Pi to 8,784 digits. Interviewer: Uh, don’t call us - we’ll call you. ---
**Author:** ![MessyPaint](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8baadc/32.png) [@MessyPaint](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MessyPaint)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2006, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memorizing-pi-to-the-8-784th-digit-bad-for-you/348629/22 "2006-03-18T21:32:54Z")
> [@Wendell Wagner](#): > > A page with 100 characters per line and 75 lines per page is pretty crowded. 800 pages could then have at most 6,000,000 characters. You’d need nearly 400 such books to hold that many digits. Interesting. This is what I read from a 1987 Guinness Book. ?? ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2006, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memorizing-pi-to-the-8-784th-digit-bad-for-you/348629/23 "2006-03-19T00:35:29Z")
MessyPaint writes: \> This is what I read from a 1987 Guinness Book. I don’t know what the Guinness Book of Records said, but this illustrates why you should check any such claim with some simple arithmetic if you’re going to memorize it for the next 19 years. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2006, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memorizing-pi-to-the-8-784th-digit-bad-for-you/348629/24 "2006-03-19T01:57:29Z")
How I want a drink, alcoholic of course, after the heavy lectures involving quantum mechanics. ---
**Author:** ![MessyPaint](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8baadc/32.png) [@MessyPaint](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MessyPaint)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2006, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memorizing-pi-to-the-8-784th-digit-bad-for-you/348629/25 "2006-03-19T05:11:44Z")
> [@Wendell Wagner](#): > > I don’t know what the Guinness Book of Records said, but this illustrates why you should check any such claim with some simple arithmetic if you’re going to memorize it for the next 19 years. Okay. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memorizing-pi-to-the-8-784th-digit-bad-for-you/348629.md?page=1)