Google Cloud developer supporter Emma Haruka Iwao and colleagues claim they’ve once again calculated Pi to a new record number of digits. Iwao says the team calculated the mathematical constant to be 100 trillion digital decimal places.
Iwao and his team previously set the record in 2019 by performing a calculation with an accuracy of 31.4 trillion digits. That record has been broken several times since then, including when researchers from a Swiss university calculated Pi to 82.8 trillion digits last year. Iwao and his team are working with Guinness World Records to officially confirm their achievement as a world record.
In a blog post, Iwao wrote that finding as many digits of Pi as possible is an important way to measure the progress of computing power. Iwao’s job includes demonstrating what Google Cloud can do, so it’s hardly surprising that Iwao leverages the power of the platform to perform the computation.
In 2019, the calculation process took 121 days, calculating a third of the number of the last attempt. This time the computation took 157 days, 23 hours, 31 minutes and 7,651 seconds, meaning computers run more than twice as fast, despite using “the same tools and techniques” as Iwao. In total, about 82,000 terabytes of data were processed.
Iwao also states that it would take more than 3.1 million years to read all 100 trillion digits aloud at the rate of one digit per second. And in case you’re wondering, Pi’s 100 trillionth decimal place is 0…
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