How can anyone remember 100,000 numbers?

The Japan Times ^ | 12/23/06 | TOMOKO OTAKE

[mikrofon]

Yeah, that's the "classic" representation -- pardon my engineer's training, wanting to reduce things to simplest form...

The second formula stated was somewhat in error; the sum of the fundamental constants can vary form three to multiple thousands, depending on the type, i.e.-

pi + e = MMMMM

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

An very clever piem.

[TruthWillWin]

I can remember 3.1416. After that it's irrelivant.

[mike_9958]

"I like pi"

I prefer phi..... tis the GOLD of math.

[randog]

I prefer phi.....

Me too. I incorporate it into mechanical designs wherever possible.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

Yeah, my first PC had a FORTRAN compiler but no built in random number generator. I coded one up from the routines in Numerical Recipes.

M' wife asks me what I'm doing, so I explains that I'm making a random number generator and why that's important. She looks at me and shakes her head, saying, "I'll never understand what you do."

[JoeGar]

pi -- a number many remember from school only as "somewhere around 3.14"

I remember pi more precisely only because, as a Purdue freshman in 1961, the Engineer's Yell was pounded into my head:

E to the x, dy dx,
E to the x dx.
Cosine, secant, tangent, sine,
Three point one four one five nine.
Square root, cube root, BTU,
Slipstick, sliderule, yea Purdue.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

Phi and -1/phi are the eigenvalues of Fibonacci's matrix. (OK, mathprof, you started this.)

F(1,1) = 0,
F(1,2) = 1,
F(2,1) = 1,
F(2,2) = 1

A = 2 x 1 column vector, A(2) not zero.

B = F^N*A In the limit as N >> Inf, B(2)/B(1) >> phi

[randog]

I explains that I'm making a random number generator and why that's important.

Tell her that slot machines would not exist without them.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

Que j'aime à faire apprendre ce nombre utile aux sages !
Immortel Archimède, artiste ingénieur,
Qui de ton jugement peut priser la valeur ?
Pour moi, ton problème eut de pareils avantages.
Jadis, mystérieux, un problème bloquait
Tout l'admirable procédé, l'œuvre grandiose
Que Pythagore découvrit aux anciens Grecs.
Ô quadrature ! Vieux tourment du philosophe
Insoluble rondeur, trop longtemps vous avez
Défié Pythagore et ses imitateurs.
Comment intégrer l'espace plan circulaire ?
Former un triangle auquel il équivaudra ?
Nouvelle invention : Archimède inscrira
Dedans un hexagone ; appréciera son aire
Fonction du rayon. Pas trop ne s'y tiendra :
Dédoublera chaque élément antérieur ;
Toujours de l'orbe calculée approchera ;
Définira limite ; enfin, l'arc, le limiteur
De cet inquiétant cercle, ennemi trop rebelle
Professeur, enseignez son problème avec zèle

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

I think the explanation, "Without random number generators, I wouldn't have a job." would have worked, too. (I used to say that I made a living for five years knowing only two things: Huygens' Principle and VMS FORTRAN. Not that Huygens' Principle has anything to do with random numbers...)

[randog]

That works, too...;^)

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

BTW, are you at all familiar with "Beckmann–Spizzichino"? It's a classic.

[SamAdams76]

It took me several years but I have memorized all the numbers between 1 and 100,000. I am now in the process of memorizing the numbers 100,001 to 200,000.

My only regret is that I cannot take these numbers with me when I die.

[martin_fierro]

"We need to learn kotsu [tricks] in our lives. . . . You know why? Because we are full of kotsu [bones]! But many of us have kekkan [faults] . . . because our body is full of kekkan [blood vessels]!)

He's a friggin' Chalres Henlickson!.

[Gaffer]

Yes...but it would look pretty foolish if he could remember PI to 100,000 places but forgot to tie up his shoelaces or put on a pair of pants in the morning..

[knarf]

" I prefer phi..... tis ... GOLD ... "(severely edited for context, without permission)

Amen!

[fnord]

phi + 1 = 1 / phi
is a sublime equation.

when I'm 61 I won't be memorizing pi to x places, but I would like to find some sort of pattern in it, and maybe a sort of grand unification between pi and phi ... nah, I'll just have a beer instead.

[BlazingArizona]

Man, I need a drink. Alcoholic of course

To amaze your friends even more, add to this "...after the heavy chapters involving quantum mechanics."

[martin_fierro]

"We need to learn kotsu [tricks] in our lives. . . . You know why? Because we are full of kotsu [bones]! But many of us have kekkan [faults] . . . because our body is full of kekkan [blood vessels]!

Corn Pi.