Subject: Re: The Boy With The Incredible Brain Ken Steele asked: >Is it possible that he picked up on a pattern of change >in the digits and was using a IF <x> THEN <y> type >of algorithm to predict the next values?
1. You'd have to check this out with a pure mathematician, but I don't think there is any such pattern of change in any of the formulae for pi (which, anyway, I suspect he is unlikely to know). 2. He works with shapes and colours that spontaneously come into his mind, not algorithms. Allen Esterson Former lecturer, Science Department Southwark College, London http://www.esterson.org ********************************************** Subject: Re: The Boy With The Incredible Brain From: Ken Steele <[email protected]> Date: Sun, 11 Jan 2009 12:21:56 -0500 Reply-To: "Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS)" <[email protected]> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="ISO-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Allen: Is it possible that he picked up on a pattern of change in the digits and was using a IF <x> THEN <y> type of algorithm to predict the next values? The miracle is being able to produce a string of 22,500 words that are comprised of only 10 words. Ken Allen Esterson wrote: > 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 --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly ([email protected])
