Forget “3.14…,” a Japanese supercomputer has calculated Pi to over 2.5 trillion decimals in what should become a new Guinness Book World Record.
The T2K Open Supercomputer, located at the University of Tsukuba’s Center for Computational Sciences, reaching 2,576,980,377,524 decimals in an approximately 73 hours and 36 minutes long calculation, according to an announcement made to the Japanese press on August 17th. The Center said it was in the process of applying for the record book.
The new number more than doubles the previous record of around 1.2 trillion digits set in 2002 by the Kanada Lab at the University of Tokyo. It is also more than 12 times the record set in 1999, again by the Kanada Lab.
The T2K, capable of doing 95 teraflops (essentially 95 trillion calculations per second), is said to be the 47th most powerful supercomputer in the world and 6th in Japan, according to a June 2009 report by Top500.org.
Whether a pattern has been found or if the number will become scientifically useful has yet to be announced.