Using techniques described by Harry Lorayne, I’ve been able to somewhat easily and enjoyably memorize the following number (broken up into two lines, so wordpress won’t freak out):
3.14159265358979323846264338327950288419716939937510
58209749445923078164062862089986280348253421170679
That’s 100 decimal places. And I generally dislike numbers. And memorizing things.
I think I’m going to stop at 100, for three reasons:
1. Checking for errors takes a really long time already.
2. I have no reason to memorize pi digits in the first place.
3. The world record is apparently 100,000 decimal places. Upon hearing that, a tiny little part of me says, “Hey, I wonder if I could ever…” (Cut to me six months later — rocking back and forth in a chair, muttering gibberish through my long, unkempt beard, in a locked room with strange symbols and seemingly random numbers written all over the walls.)
. . .
If anyone has any suggestions for numbers that would actually be useful to memorize (beyond checking accounts and phone numbers and such), let me know.
Tags: Harry Lorayne, memory, pi
December 6, 2008 at 9:49 pm |
Conversion rates for Fahrenheit vs. Celsius, inch vs. centimeter, mile vs. kilometer, cup vs. milliliter, etc.
Then when I need to know, I can just call you long distance… wait, useful? Nevermind.