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Solving this massive Pi stack required computing power equivalent to hundreds of thousands of smartphones. 1 million gigabytes of data were used.

The number pi or 3.14 It is an irrational number, meaning it has an infinite number of non-repeating decimal places. The value of pi is equal to the length of a circle (the distance along its edge) divided by its diameter (the distance between two opposite points). This means that you can calculate the length, diameter, or radius (half the diameter) of a circle, or vice versa, by knowing the value of the number pi.

Solving the hidden decimal places of pi after the decimal point has no real impact on mathematics, since calculations rarely require more than a few dozen digits. Example, NASA scientists need to know only the first 15 decimal places to understand most of the universe. Instead, calculating a number to its most accurate value has long been used as a reference point for testing new computer programs and data storage systems. And also to break another record and get into the Guinness Book of Records.

On Pi Day (March 14, which appears as “3.14” in the American date system), Solidigm, an American computer data storage company based in California, said it had calculated Pi with approximately 10% accuracy. Up to 105 trillion decimal places.

To put that number into context, if you were to write it in a single line on paper in 10th-point font, it would be about 3.7 billion kilometers long, meaning it could extend from Earth to a point between Uranus and Neptune.

• The calculation took approx. 75 days.
• It was performed on 36 custom solid state drives (SSDs) that stored approximately 1 petabyte of data in total.
• The 105 trillionth digit of pi is 6.