He had ten thousand numbers in memory – Dagens Industri

He had ten thousand numbers in memory

                  2015-03-13 21:43
             

3.141592653589793 – and so on into infinity. Near the pension decided Karl-Erik Helenius to learn ten thousand decimal places from memory.

Archimedes’ constant, Ludolphs speech or plain and simple: I?.

On March 14, celebrated the International Pi Day. The speech has fascinated mathematicians for millennia and attracted many to utter as many decimal places as possible without added.

Karl-Erik Helenius, 71, from Harnosand – trained mathematician, former university teacher and computer consultant – was challenged by his grandson, who has just learned hundred pi decimals.

Since it went on the fly, he said.

equaled the Swedish record

As a 64-year-old equaled Karl-Erik Helenius 2008 the Swedish record, which still stands up, 10 000 decimal places.

At most I could about 12,500 decimal places, but then I got enough. I got up four in the morning to practice and had the last hundred decimal places with me to the bathroom and walks. It took over too much.

The trick to for almost five hours to reel off seemingly random numbers in the correct order was the memory techniques Karl-Erik Helenius been taught by a professor at Uppsala nearly 30 years earlier.

I learned to remember the images and events. But now I can not rattling decimal places anymore, I’m not as good at remembering anymore, he laughs.

“Have changed the history”

The mathematician Marija Cvijovic at University of Gothenburg think pi day is well worth celebrating.

An infinite number may be difficult to grasp. But pi has also changed the history and style of mathematics as we see it now.

Pi races is a fun and fascinating aspect, think Cvijovic. The world record, according to Guinness World Records, is close to 68 000th

But usually suffice only two.

I think many are fascinated by the infinite. But 3.14 is usually enough good, nowadays have the computers who can count to one, she says.