What is Pi?
Pi is the number which expresses the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter. Pi is an irrational number, so unlike rationals, the decimals run on forever, never forming a repeating pattern. Entire books have been devoted to Pi, which has roots far deeper than its relationship with circles.

‘The Everest of Memory Tests’ - World Record

In the straight memorisation of pi, the aim is to quote as many decimal places as possible. This Matrix Memorisation record requires the memoriser not only to know the actual order of the number, but also to know the digits in the correct order from anywhere in the sequence.

It is a bit like learning a massive book, and then being given a sequence of just a couple of words from it, and asked to remember the words that appear on either side.

Watch the video below for an explanation of the record or read on.

Video created by Brendan Campbell from Hand Drawn House Productions.

You can contact him on 082 727 8274 or email him here.

The record is recognised by The International Federation of Memory Sports and by Buzan’s Book of Mental World Records. It was first featured in Buzan’s book of Genius.

Click Here to contact us

Explanation of the record:

It has been called the ‘Everest of Memory Tests’ - recalling 100 randomly chosen 5 digit components of pi. The first 10,000 digits of pi - an infinite non-repeating number- are divided into 2000 5-digit blocks. The testers (three to five independent people of standing in the community) call out one of these 5-digit sequences, and the candidate must reply with the 5-digits on either side of the number chosen. This happens 50 times.

The tester calls out 250 digits in total (fifty groups of five), and 500 digits must be recalled (five before and five after). The record is for the time taken to recall the event.  Zero errors are accepted.