Shigeru Kondo, a 55 year old Japanese systems engineer, has set a new world record by doing what most of us would never even consider worth even dreaming about doing. He has calculated Pi (ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter) to 5 trillion digits.
Pi, as we all know, is usually abbreviated to 3.14. The previous record was 2.7 trillion digits, set last year by a French Engineeer. Probably had the time when his train was sent to the wrong destination.
Shigeru Kondo built his own computer and the calculation took him 90 days and 7 hours. Mrs Kondo’s reaction to the achievement was a complaint that the computer used up a lot of energy during the three-month project and increased the electricity bill.
Shigeru Kondo now hopes to improve on his record and is aiming for 10 trillion digits. One might have been less underwhelmed if he had either:
a: Calculated the figure by hand or
b: Memorised the result.