Post by: Eric Li

Pi learning!

What is this?

First of all, what is pi? Pi is a constant. Yes, that's what it is. It is the result you get when you divide the circumference of a circle by its diameter or more simply, the ratio of the cicumference to the diameter of a circle. Everybody knows that it's "equal" to 3.14 (to 2 decimal places) or 22/7 but the latter is so much inexact. Have you ever tried it on a calculator? 22/7 gives you 3.1428 while in decimal place it is 3.1415. Last thing to know, the symbol for pi is π.

Methods of learning

There are basically 2 techniques. The first one, the "The fixed-length method", consists of dividing the digits into groups of a fixed length. It can be learning in groups of 2,3,5,7... and there's the "The variable-length method". We will be concentrating ourself on this one.

The variable-length method

This one is easier and more efficient to learn. In this one, you break the digits in groups you find easy to learn. It can be for repeating, consecutive digits or dates, years or any simple to remember pattern.
Before going further on, you should get a site from where to learn. I would advice you to forget sites with pi listed in a disordered way like here to choose a well-structured or ordered pi listing site like here or here.

π spacing

Here's how I break it up but you can also split it in a different way to suit yourself. I haven't explained why I broke it in such way as I think it's sufficiently clear. You only need to know that the numbers in the brackets are numbers which are easy to learn in groups and those that aren't are those that don't have patterns and those you need to learn with a little difficulty but don't worry, when you're used to it, it's sometimes easier to remember than those in groups. Up to now, I've learned by heart only those. When I learn more, I'll add more patterns.

π = 3.

[14,15]92[65,35][89,79][32,38][46,26][43.38,32]79,50[28.84][19,71][69,39.93]75,10,58,20[974,944,59]230,781[640,628,620][899,862,803,4,
825]3[421,170]679[821,4,808]65,13[28,230]66,470,9,38,44

practice

Lastly, it is very important to practice to memorise and so as not to forget what you've already learnt. You can do this here or here.

Good luck!

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