Naked Science Memory Course - Copyright Michael Curtis 2007
You don't have to be an evil genius to learn pi ... but it helps.
Actually, the definition of pi is not so bad:
You could say, "Pi is a numerical constant that represents the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter on a flat plane surface."
So, if you cut a pizza in half, the length across the cut has a relationship with the distance around the outside of the pizza. If you get a bigger pizza and cut it in half, yes, the length of the cut across the middle is bigger but so is the length around the circle. And you will always find that the length of the outside of the pizza is roughly three times the length across the middle (diameter). Interestingly, the same is true with a pie !!
People learn pi to a small number of places by making clever sentences where word lengths are the numbers in pi.
Or expand this into a huge poem like The Raven.
So how many digits are in pi? 10: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9.
However, even a computer can not work out all of pi. Mathematicians do not see a recurring pattern to it; so it is as if it has no end - not even in a recurring way!! I find it completely irrational!
Akira Haraguchi is celebrated for recalling pi to 100,000 places.
An organised mnemonist can achieve this with a lot of hard preparation work.
It is called piphology and may involve acrostics or some other technique. I prefer to call it pi-rote-technics.
Often, people criticise the act of learning pi and they say that it is worthy of derision. Or they make glib comments that he wrote the answer on the back of his hand. However, I think that we all have a right to spend our leisure time doing whatever harmless hobby we like. It could be a crossword, sudoku, watching football on television or going for a walk; that's my choice. Also, I benefit from Haraguchi San's efforts because he inspires people to research memory techniques - which are a passion of mine.
Assuming that you are not that ambitious, here is prose which represents the pi decimal places to 100 places:
This seems like a poem or normal prose but each word's first letter/syllable translates into a digit [as explained in the article about 'Single Digit Acrostics']. 'Due to demand..' in the prose is D.. T .. D.. with its words' beginning letters and that becomes 141 just like pi, after 3.... begins .141....
14159 Due to demand (my audience
26535 begs of me high numbers...)
89793 We are simulating Akira Haraguchi
23846 by citing very large oration.
26433 By reciting long quotient quotations,
83279 we can earn some applause.
50288 Numbers should easily get uttered
41971 to dazed audiences - signalling delight!
69399 Reciting accurately calls for attentiveness.
37510 Hazily spouting numbers deserves shame!
58209 My very best performance always!
74944 Just learn all lines lucidly!
58209 Now we end the feat;
74944 since it already impressed loads!
06286 People rarely enjoy unending recitals;
20899 End this with 99;
86280 Wait! Only end with that?
34825 Hundred! It would end marvellously!
34211 Cease it beyond double digits!
70679 Stop showing off! Just finish!
Well, first of all, I do not have time to dedicate to the task. But that is a weak answer. It is .. a pi-thetic answer!! However, I like the idea of developing a system of images which represent all four-digit combinations from 0000 to 9999. If I also had a big peg system (like in the biography people system article) then each 'peg' could store at least 4 digits (and ideally 10 digits by extending the visual story) - and that would be a neat and achievable way to memorise a lot of pi. Or cheat and memorise a zip file's bytes!
