Piphilology - Memorization Record Holders

Memorization Record Holders

Even before computers calculated π, memorizing a record number of digits became an obsession for some people. The current Guinness-recognized record for remembered digits of π is 67,890 digits, held by Lu Chao, a 24-year-old graduate student from China. It took him 24 hours and 4 minutes to recite to the 67,890th decimal place of π without an error. On October 3, 2006, Akira Haraguchi reportedly was able to recite the first 100,000 decimal places of π. On June 17, 2009, Andriy Slyusarchuk, a Ukrainian neurosurgeon and professor, claimed to have memorized the first 30 million decimal places of π. Although he did not recite the entire 30 million digits that he claims to have memorized, he was reportedly able to recite any randomly selected sequences from the 30 million digits. Mr. Slyusarchuk was officially congratulated on setting a new world record by the President of Ukraine Viktor Yuschenko. This record and his previous record of memorizing one million digits of pi in 2006 have been recognised as world records by the Ukrainian Book of Records.

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