Chinese Student Sets Pi Record
A 24-year-old graduate student in China’s Shanxi province has just been credited with the Guinness record for reciting the most digits of pi. Lu Chao achieved the feat a year ago, however the Guiness headquarters in England took a year to officially register the record. On November 19, 2005 Lu recited 67,890 digits of pi, the ratio of the circumference to the diameter of a circle. The nerdy feat took 24 hours and 4 minutes. Lu Chao began studying the digits of pi in 2004 and spent 10 hours a day last summer memorizing the number sequence. Formerly, the record was held by a Japanese math whiz who recited 42,195 digits in 1995. It’s fitting that the record is back in Chinese hands. For one, the man who discovered pi was an ancient Chinese mathematician named Zu Chongzhi. And also, the Chinese are the Asian nerds of the 21st century. Japanese Asian nerds are so 80s. Lu Chao plans on writing a book on improving memory and being a nerd.
•Xinhua: Chinese Student Breaks Guinness Record