History
Until the 20th century, the number of digits of pi which mathematicians have had the stamina to calculate by hand remained in the hundreds, so that memorization of all known digits at the time was possible. In 1949 a computer was used to calculate π to 2000 places, presenting one of the earliest opportunities for a more difficult challenge.
Later computers calculated pi to extraordinary numbers of digits (2.7 trillion as of August, 2010), and people began memorizing more and more of the output. The world record for the number of digits memorized has exploded since the mid-1900s, and it stood at 100,000 as of October 2006. The previous record (83,431) was set by the same person (Akira Haraguchi) on July 2, 2005, and the record previous to that (42,195) was held by Hiroyuki Goto. An institution from Germany provides the details of the “Pi World Ranking”; see the website at http://www.pi-world-ranking-list.com.
Read more about this topic: Piphilology
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