What are the first ten digits of pi?
The first ten digits of pi are 3.141592653. Pi continues forever without ever repeating a pattern, because it is an irrational number.
Pi, written π, is the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter. Most everyday calculations use 3.14 or 3.14159, and NASA uses about 15 decimal places for interplanetary navigation.
People use memory tricks, or mnemonics, to recall more digits. One famous sentence is How I wish I could calculate pi, where the number of letters in each word gives 3.141592. Some people memorize tens of thousands of digits.
Calculating pi
Ancient mathematicians, such as Archimedes, estimated pi using shapes with many sides. Computers have now calculated pi to hundreds of trillions of digits, mainly to test hardware and calculation methods.
Pi appears far beyond circles. It shows up in formulas for waves, probability, the motion of pendulums and even the shapes of rivers, which is one reason mathematicians find it so fascinating.
Did You Know?
The record for reciting the most digits of pi from memory, recognized by Guinness World Records, is 70,030 digits, set by Suresh Kumar Sharma of India in 2015.