Celebrating pi day with a new record

Today is the day the world celebrates the number $\pi$. That's because it's March 14th, which in the US is written as 3/14, giving you the first three digits of this beloved number. But of course, they are only the first three digits of an infinite number: $\pi$ is irrational which means that its decimal expansion is infinite.

This is why it's rather fitting that Google employee Emma Haruka Iwao today announced a new record: using Google's cloud computing service she has calculated the first 31 trillion digits of $\pi$. Previously only the first 22 trillion digits were known. The calculation required 170TB of data and took 25 virtual machines 121 days to complete.

It's a great present for all lovers of $\pi$. Happy $\pi$ day and thank you Emma Haruka Iwao!

You can find out more about $\pi$ and why you would want to calculate it to so many digits in the video below.