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It's Pi Day 2022 and I tried to calculate π to 100 digits by hand. And despite having a team of 30 people and a whole weekend we got... well. I'll let you watch the video.

Thanks for your support! Patreon is the only reason I could organise something of this scale and cost, for a video which is definitely a bit niche.

Heads-up: I am absolutely going to try this again around February 2024 (to release on Pi Day 2024) and we're going to have a lot more people and a much better system. The goal is to do 528 digits and set the new world record for most digits of π calculated by hand, ever. If you'd like to join in, register your interest here: https://forms.gle/ypGENWgivE1WMTZZA

In this video I say that I'm going to post bits of the working out to Patreon supporters who would like it. I'm not going to do a blanket post-out to everyone (like I did with the donut balloons) as it's a lot of postage and not everyone will have a use for a scrap of paper with a few digits written on it (whereas everyone needs an inflatable torus!).

So if you would like a piece: fill in this form. https://forms.gle/RsuU3dY1ZxG7hKEJ7 Please use the same email as you use on Patreon so I can match it up with your membership. You can also add your address again for safety.

I also don't think I'll have enough for everyone. I can guarantee there is enough for supporters at the Statistically Significant level and higher, and I'll send it out to as many other people as I can. You have until the end of March to request a piece, and I'll do the final allocations on the 1 April.

Hope you all have a great Pi Day!

Files

100 digits of π by hand? The William Shanks method.

For Pi Day 2022 I used the same method as William Shanks and we got π = 3.14159265358868... Huge thanks to my patreon supporters who make this video possible. Join in and you can also help enable my ridiculous ideas: https://www.patreon.com/standupmaths And if you are a patreon supporter and would like a piece of my working out: let me know! https://forms.gle/RsuU3dY1ZxG7hKEJ7 Volunteer to help out next time here: https://forms.gle/ypGENWgivE1WMTZZA See more letters that Shanks sent the Royal Society over on Objectivity: The Mathematical Spammer - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yTXMeiVBCc And I do some more maths about Shanks's other work on Numberphile. Reciprocals of Prime Numbers - https://youtu.be/DmfxIhmGPP4 Thanks to Kepier School for letting us use their hall. https://kepier.com/ The human calculator volunteers were: Anitej Banerjee Sam Basak Thomas Beauchamp Diana Bergerova Lauren Billett Sophie Bleau Jasmine Burgess Nick Campen Hannah Charman Matt Clough Kelsey Hewitt Max Hughes Ben Hughes Deanna Judd Jeremy Kew Christian Lawson-Perfect Sophie Maclean Max McCormick Hazel Minty Tilly Pitt Matt Robinson Matthew Scroggs Richard Shackleton Katie Steckles Victoria Sun Milosz Szymanski Adam Townsend Clare Wallace Thanks specifically to the Council of Calculating Pi By Hand who helped me organise the event: James Grime, Christian Lawson-Perfect, Sophie Maclean, Matthew Scroggs, Ben Sparks and Katie Steckles. CORRECTIONS - We got pi wrong in the 12 decimal place. - Let me know if you spot anything else! Filming and editing by Alex Genn-Bash Additional filming by James Hennessy Music by Howard Carter Design by Simon Wright and Adam Robinson HIDING IN THE CREDITS BY T̸̝̉H̵͘ͅĖ̸̯ ̵͕̆M̶̙̉I̴͈̅GHT̵̠̀Ẏ̷̳ ̵̘͑J̶̼̭͗Ì̸̼̘G̶̳̈́ MATT PARKER: Stand-up Mathematician Website: http://standupmaths.com/ US book: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/610964/humble-pi-by-matt-parker/ UK book: https://mathsgear.co.uk/collections/books/products/humble-pi-signed-paperback

Comments

Mustafa Barodawala

whoah head librarian of the royal society, london, keith!!!

Reinier B

Now I'm curious what your plans for Pi Day 2023 are :)

The Dean

Classic πker sum.

DarkElder

Happy π Day everyone!

Felicia Barker

The odd numbered years he calculates it by interesting mechanical means, the even numbers by doing a calculation by hand

Jevon Wright

Oops I misread the title. Here I was thinking we could all contribute to the working out of pi! Interested in a collaborative by-hand worldwide calculation of pi?

standupmaths

Yes, I have a few ideas for mechanical means in 2023 but I’m always open to suggestions!

standupmaths

We did have a few schools send in remote working out by hand for the 2020 pi calculation. But decided against it this time as I have my eye on setting the world record in 2024 and that will need to be done entirely under scrutiny. So I decided to test-run that this year.

Chris Nash

Definitely look forward to 2024, would love to help. You did this about 20 minutes away from me!

George Radcliffe

Can you use anything you have learned about the William Shanks method to estimate where exactly he might have gone wrong in his calculation of the 707 digit number with 527 digit accuracy as published?

Wish_should_be_a_cantrip

I submitted the form slightly before my membership was confirmed, will that be ok?