how far have they calculated pi to?
You can download the first 6,442,450,000 digits here.
I don’t think there’s been as big a push to compute digits of pi since the recent algorithms which allow arbitrary digits to be computed without computing the previous digits (i.e. you can computed the one millionth digit without computing the first 999,999 digits).
Here’s a link the Bailey-Borwein-Plouffe Algorithm, which works with hex pi digits, and a later article by Simon Plouffe on doing the same thin in base 10.
Arjuna34
You mean with our without all the digits, since it’s now known how to calculate the nth digit (in hexadecimal, at least) without having to mess around with all the others ahead of it? So if you want to know the 12 quadrillionth digit, it’s not too hard to figure out.
I’ve seen a claim for 206,158,430,000 decimal digits, but that was made in Oct '99. Almost surely been surpassed by now.
It’s amazing what happens without making major news…I can’t believe I hadn’t heard about this until now…wow.
Phobos and the OPer should get together and throw off the path of Mars around the Sun.
And to answer the OP, more than you even want to look at. It would quite possibly make you vomit:)
I don’t know that I would classify any of this “major news” unless any use for the 206,158,430,000th digit of pi has been discovered. Precision’s fine, but there’s a point at which updates get redundant. I would put that point at the 206 billionth decimal.
I would put the point after the 3.
OK, but if you do, you’ll miss the secret message from God. It starts at the trillionth digit.
The main reason they want to calculate Pi to umpteen digits is to check certain predictions of number theory.
[hijack]
And what, praytell, does number theory predict? I thought that numbers were pretty much, well, numbers.
[/hijack]
Now for the next problem. What is the maximum number of consecutive zeros in the decimal realm of pi?
Here’s Cecil on how and why we compute pi to bazillions of decimal places:
http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3_357.html
This was written before the previously mentioned discoveries, which I considered major news, btw
Arjuna34
The big news is that they can now calculate it to any place, without having to start at the beginning.
That’s the last I’ve heard. You can download those 206 billion digits here:
Pi archives via FTP
Sorry, I misread what you can say at that page. I should say “You can read some information about that calculation” at the link I posted.
I’m game.
Phobos and Deimos are both hale fellows well met, but all their mass and momentum put together couldn’t do squat to the orbit of Mars.
Is there a proof somewhere that pi really is irrational, and infinite? How can mathematicians be sure the number wouldn’t just end somewhere after the 206,158,430,001st digit?
Here’s one proof. It was first proved in 1768.
Arjuna34
we would, but the rent’s cheap. 