Google Cloud employee calculates pi to 100 trillion digits

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Emma Haruka Iwao had a record for the number of digits calculated for pi, but she lost it. Iwao was able to find pi to its 100 trillionth digit using the same program that she was able to find pi to.

It took the computers until March 22nd to complete the process. It went more than twice as fast as it did in the previous year. According to Iwao, she was using the same tools and techniques, but the increased speed is due to how the parts of Google Cloud have improved since then with 100Gbps networking, balanced Disks, and other features detailed in this deep dive into the calculations

We did it again! We successfully calculated 100 trillion digits of π using @googlecloud, a new world record! Check out the announcement for more technical details here https://t.co/UKcFchGisl

— Emma Haruka Iwao ️‍ ️‍⚧️ (@Yuryu) June 8, 2022

The huge amount of data processed to calculate numbers is a significant difference. The first record-breaking calculation resulted in the processing of over 19 thousand terabytes of data. The computer was able to calculate 100 trillion digits in less than two hours.

There are some fun facts in the post that show how big 100 trillion is. It would take 100 trillion inches of pie crust to travel from Earth to the moon. If you want to see the source code for all 100 trillion digits, you can get it here.

The announcement missed Pi Day 2022. At the end of this month, on June 28th, we will celebrate a different circle constant that has been overlooked because it doesn't rhyme with pie.

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