“Mathematics is the language with which God wrote the universe,” said Galileo Galilei. Sefer Yetzirah, the oldest kabbalistic work, arguably agrees, stating in its very first paragraph that Hashem “created His universe with three sefarim: sepher, sephar, and sipur – text, numbers, and communication (translation, Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan).
In that spirit, The Jewish Press decided to join math lovers the world over in celebrating Pi Day, observed every year since 1988 on March 14.
(Pi – the ration between a circle’s circumference and its diameter – is of course 3.14, and March 14 can be written as 3.14.)
Pi Day is both a silly and serious day. Silly in that some people celebrate it by eating and throwing pies (some stores actually sell mini pies and pizzas for $3.14 and MIT often mails its application decision letters for delivery on Pi Day). And serious in that it revolves around the world’s most famous irrational number. To date, pi has been calculated to the 2.7 trillionth digit.
India’s Rajveer Meena holds the record for memorizing pi to the greatest number of digits (70,0000). Japan’s Akira Haraguchi holds the unofficial record (100,000 digits).
Pi to the thousandth digit:
3.1415926535897932384626433832795028841971693993751058209749445923078164062862089986280348253421170679821480865132823066470938446095505822317253594081284811174502841027019385211055596446229489549303819644288109756659334461284756482337867831652712019091456485669234603486104543266482133936072602491412737245870066063155881748815209209628292540917153643678925903600113305305488204665213841469519415116094330572703657595919530921861173819326117931051185480744623799627495673518857527248912279381830119491298336733624406566430860213949463952247371907021798609437027705392171762931767523846748184676694051320005681271452635608277857713427577896091736371787214684409012249534301465495853710507922796892589235420199561121290219608640344181598136297747713099605187072113499999983729780499510597317328160963185950244594553469083026425223082533446850352619311881710100031378387528865875332083814206171776691473035982534904287554687311595628638823537875937519577818577805321712268066130019278766111959092164201989