Thread

Engineering Memory: On learning to memorize first 100 digits of pi (2024)

66 points · 39 comments · fuzzythinker

oliculipolicula · 1790044132 · focus · HN ↗
If Socrates were alive today, he'd encourage engineers to internalise the spigot algorithm
Then, like a MENTAT, they'd be able to tell you the 16afedf97fd4th digit of pi when prod
In hex, naturally <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bailey%E2%80%93Borwein%E2%80%93Plouffe_formula" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bailey%E2%80%93Borwein%E2%80%9...
>The BBP formula gives rise to a spigot algorithm for computing the nth base-16 (hexadecimal) digit of π (and therefore also the 4nth binary digit of π) WITHOUT computing the preceding digits.
1. Ey7NFZ3P0nzAe · 1790063777 · focus · HN ↗
  I have a huge respect for Fabrice Bellard for creating his own optimized version:
  <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bellard's_formula" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bellard's_formula

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