8 thoughts on “Loooong Domain Name – Pi”

1. Yes, Jianshuo, I can recite over 100 digits. However, in my later research on learning, I found many guys under 16 can do it if they want. More digits fyi:

   http://www.isaacmao.com//2003/3/30#447

2. I read an interesting book called “Intelligent Memory” by a John Hopkins University Professor, and in there, they said those skills are a subset of a larger skill called “chunking”, where a person can remember large number of things by associating chunks of numbers with things they can easily remember. Some people would weave ‘stories’ about the numbers so they could remember it easily, other use a mneumonic system (like “three” is “tree” and “four is door”), so 34 could be remembered as a tree-house with a door when you want to leave it. Interesting stuff. :-)

3. Take a look at this one! http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2004-02-04-operation-usat_x.htm

   It’s almost surreal with that kind of biological development…

4. Isaac, haha. I added you to my list. :-D Did you noticed that I left a blank line yesterday? It was for you. :-D

5. Lee, I, and many other people, didn’t use the “story” method. It would to be handy to remember short numbers, but if Pi is turned out to be a story, it should be a novel. :-D I broke it down (as demostrated in the article) and just repeat and recite them. It works like they way we remember the telephone number of a close friend. 100 digit of Pi is just less than 20 telephone numbers.

6. This is amazing talent! Is it something to do with Abacus? or just playing with numbers?

7. I know a boy who can recite over 100 digits of pi and won a prize at his elementary school in St. Charles, Illinois for doing it. His name is Eric (Xiong) Ye and he is 10. He doesn’t use email because he’d rather play with his Xbox.

   At first I thought that the school was giving a stupid assignment, but when he told me how he was learning the numbers (by “chunking”) I realized that it was a terrific way to develop intelligence. And of course, that is exactly what I am doing when I try to learn to write Chinese characters. Most people who chunk don’t have names for most of the categories they used to group things, they just do it.

   Thanks for the blog. We are renting an apartment in Shanghai in the fall and all the information is great, plus it helps us dream about the trip.

   Zjemi

8. Hi, It is really nice to find your blog. I just added your MSN. Thank you for your presentation lecture. It is also helpful for TA and RA. :)

   I also did a lot of stupid things when I was young. However, I don’t think recite Pi is stupid. I remeber that I read a story about Tong Dizhou. It says he can recite 100 digits of pi even when he is old. So I just wanted to have a try. At that time, I was in Grade 5 or 6 in an elementary school.

   Many people may heard the story to remember the first 21 digit of pi, I also remember it in that way.

   3.14159 26 535 897 932 384 626 (山顶一寺一壶酒，尔乐， 苦杀吾， 把酒吃， 酒杀尔， 杀不死， 乐尔乐 )

   but it is difficult to creat a story for a whole 100 digits . so first I just put 3 digits together and assign some meaning to them. (Meaning can help on long term memory)

   433 832 795 028 841 971 693 993 751 058 209 But 3 digits encoding produce too many groups, so I change to 5 digits per group in the later digits. :)

   74944

   59230

   78164

   06286

   20899

   86280

   34825

   34211

   70679 (Now it is the same as Tong Dizhou)

   82148

   08651

   As a little child, I wanted to be a scientist. So I did it just to make sure I have the basic memorizing ability like them. Then I just left it aside and did not go over it.

   12 years later(2003), my colleague(classmates) Jeff Cui sent me the Pi. It invoked my old memory. I told him that I can remember 100 digits in one day. And of course he did not believe it and would like offer a dinner for it.

   To my supprise, it only took me about 10 minutes to recite it again although more than 10 years past at noon. Jeff cannot believe it. Haha.

   It seems that my brain also use “pointer” to store information in memory. I think that I forget many things, but if my friends mention a few words or I read several sentenses of that day. Then I will remember most parts.