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How long is pi right now?

Published in Mathematics 2 mins read

The length of pi is infinite; it's an irrational number, meaning its decimal representation never ends and never repeats. While we can calculate it to an increasing number of digits, pi itself is not a finite length "right now" or at any point in time.

Here's a breakdown:

  • Irrational Numbers: Pi is an irrational number, and by definition, these numbers have infinite, non-repeating decimal expansions.

  • Calculating Pi: While pi is infinite, mathematicians have calculated it to trillions of digits. As of August 2023, over 62.8 trillion digits were known.

  • Practical Implications: Despite being infinite, for most practical applications, we only need a few digits of pi. For example, 3.14 or 3.14159 are often sufficient.

  • Reciting Pi: While the number of digits is vast, the reference indicates that reciting the known digits of pi (as of February 2018) would take approximately 1.98 years at a rate of 3 digits per second. Of course, pi has been calculated to many more digits since then, so that time would be significantly longer today.

In summary, pi's decimal representation goes on forever, so its length is infinite.

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