Swiss researchers have calculated the mathematical constant pi to a new world-record level of exactitude, hitting 62.8tn figures using a supercomputer.
“The calculation took 108 days and nine hours,” the Graubuenden University of Applied Sciences said in a statement.
Its efforts were “almost twice as fast as the record Google set using its cloud in 2019, and 3.5 times as fast as the previous world record in 2020”, according to the university’s Centre for Data Analytics, Visualisation and Simulation.
Researchers were waiting for the Guinness Book of Records to certify their feat. Until then they have revealed only the final 10 digits they calculated for pi: 7817924264.
The previous world-record pi calculation achieved 50tn figures.
Pi represents the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter, with an infinite number of digits following the decimal point.
Researchers nevertheless continue to push calculations for the constant – whose first 10 figures are 3.141592653 – ever further using powerful computers.
The Swiss team said that the experience they built calculating pi could be applied in other areas such as “RNA analysis, simulations of fluid dynamics and textual analysis”.