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Happy Pi Day from the Pi Guy
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Math lovers celebrate March 14 (or "3-14") as Pi Day.
The Greek letter pi represents the mathematical constant that equals a circle's circumference divided by its diameter. The world's most famous irrational number is usually shortened to 3.14 — but not for Marc Umile.
In January, the 40-year-old from Upper Darby, Pa., became the North American record-holder for memorizing pi: He made it to the 12,887th digit.
Umile says he has always been fascinated with human memory.
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"For anybody who wants to know how good their memory is, pi is the ultimate test of finding that out," Umile tells Robert Siegel.
A love of music helped Umile memorize the digits of pi. He says he separated the numbers into clusters of 2, 4 and 6, and he also recorded himself reciting pi, and listened to it repeatedly.
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. 9(MDA1OTI3MjQ5MDEyODUwMTE2MzM1YzNmZA004))
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