Recite 100,000 odd numbers of pi

A Japanese psychologist advised that he had set up a new world record after reading up to 100,000 decimal places of pi digits.

Akira Haraguchi and odd numbers of pi (Photo: ernac.com)

Akira Haraguchi, 60, took more than 16 hours to read 100,000 odd numbers, surpassing his own best of 83,431 figures in 1995. He did this at a conference building in Kisarazu, east. Tokyo.

Pi - a constant - is the ratio of the circle's circumference and its diameter. Usually people only write it to the third decimal place of 3,141. However, this number, which has fascinated scientists for centuries, in theory has no limit on the number of decimal places.

'What I want to achieve is not just memorizing numbers, I want to make up with pi,' Haraguchi said.

Guinness Book of Records now considers Hiroyuki Goto, also a Japanese citizen, to officially hold the record for the most odd numbers of pi readings. He mentioned 42,195 decimal places in 1995. Guiness never included the Haraguchi 1995 achievement in their book.

Haraguchi - a business consultant and psychological consultant in the city of Mobara - takes about 5 minutes to go to the toilet every one to two hours or eat, Naoki Fuji - his office spokesman said.

Fuji said all Haraguchi's activities, including his rest to go to the toilet, were recorded, as evidence later sent to the Guinness Book of Records.

Two local education officials and 26 staff at the conference building changed the session to oversee Haraguchi. He started reading from 9am on Tuesday morning and ended at 1:28 am Wednesday.

In 2002, Tokyo mathematicians, supported by a supercomputer, set a record of finding 1,240 decimal fraction of pi.

MC