On 10 January 2009 Rick Stevens wrote: > I recorded this show and show it sometimes in class. > His '22,500' places of pi is billed as a memory event > but I have wondered if he was not 'just' calculating as > he went along. [...]
There is no straightforward formula for pi that he could have used to calculate as he went along. (Not at the rate he was going all the way through!) See, e.g., Leibniz's formula pi/4 = 1 - 1/3 + 1/5 - 1/7 + 1/9 - 1/11 + 1/13 - 1/15 + 1/17 - 1/19... ad infinitum (For the later decimal digits for pi he would have had to have calculated hundreds of these terms for every digit -- and then add them together.) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leibniz_formula_for_pi Hands up all those who think pi = 22/7. :-) Allen Esterson Former lecturer, Science Department Southwark College, London http://www.esterson.org **************************************** Subject: Re: The Boy With The Incredible Brain From: "Rick Stevens" <[email protected]> Date: Sat, 10 Jan 2009 08:29:54 -0600 I recorded this show and show it sometimes in class. His '22,500' places of pi is billed as a memory event but I have wondered if he was not 'just' calculating as he went along. Chao Lu may still hold the record at 67,890 places. I found his meeting with Kim Peek to be interesting, too. RS On Fri, Jan 9, 2009 at 8:04 AM, Christopher D. Green <[email protected]>wrote: > > See this film about a "savant" in England who can recite pi to 22,500 > places, do extraordinary math problems in his head, and learn new languages > in about a week. > http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4913196365903075662 > > He has Asperger's, but unlike most savants, he is quite high functioning > interpersonally. > > There is more information about him here: > http://www.mindhacks.com/blog/2009/01/inside_the_mind_of_a.html > > Chris > -- > > Christopher D. Green > Department of Psychology > York University > Toronto, ON M3J 1P3 > Canada > > > > 416-736-2100 ex. 66164 > [email protected] > http://www.yorku.ca/christo/ --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly ([email protected])
