Feynman Point, Martin Krzywinski

The Feynman Point is the first place where 6 9s occur in π . This happens at digit 762, which is much sooner than expected. Here is π to 1,000 decimal places showing the location of the Feynman point.

3.1415926535 8979323846 2643383279 5028841971 6939937510 : 50
5820974944 5923078164 0628620899 8628034825 3421170679 : 100
8214808651 3282306647 0938446095 5058223172 5359408128 : 150
4811174502 8410270193 8521105559 6446229489 5493038196 : 200
4428810975 6659334461 2847564823 3786783165 2712019091 : 250
4564856692 3460348610 4543266482 1339360726 0249141273 : 300
7245870066 0631558817 4881520920 9628292540 9171536436 : 350
7892590360 0113305305 4882046652 1384146951 9415116094 : 400
3305727036 5759591953 0921861173 8193261179 3105118548 : 450
0744623799 6274956735 1885752724 8912279381 8301194912 : 500

9833673362 4406566430 8602139494 6395224737 1907021798 : 550
6094370277 0539217176 2931767523 8467481846 7669405132 : 600
0005681271 4526356082 7785771342 7577896091 7363717872 : 650
1468440901 2249534301 4654958537 1050792279 6892589235 : 700
4201995611 2129021960 8640344181 5981362977 4771309960 : 750
5187072113 4999999837 2978049951 0597317328 1609631859 : 800
5024459455 3469083026 4252230825 3344685035 2619311881 : 850
7101000313 7838752886 5875332083 8142061717 7669147303 : 900
5982534904 2875546873 1159562863 8823537875 9375195778 : 950
1857780532 1712268066 1300192787 6611195909 2164201989 : 1000

As the story goes, Feynman said that he’d like to memorize π up to the first 6 9s so that he could finish the recitation with “nine nine nine nine nine nine and so on”. To find a scheme that suggests that π is rational is mathematical humor of the highest order.

Images and words courtesy of Martin Krzywinski