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Comment by nico | Hacker News Reader

Is there a physical limit to how many digits of pi can ever be computed/represented in the universe?

For example, let’s say we need one atom for each digit of pi that we want to store, the max limit of digits of pi would be something like the total number of atoms in the universe, minus the atoms required to compute and store the digits.

Has that been studied/calculated?

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This sounds like a lot of work, when the physical limit of how many decimal places you need in our universe given the Planck length is only 63 or so.

What do you mean that we “only need” 63 decimal places?

A computer can calculate and hold a lot more than 63 digits.

So I guess my question is more like: if the universe was just one big computer dedicated only to calculating (and storing) digits of pi, how many digits could it get to calculate, max?

There’s no possible circle in our universe that needs more than those digits of PI for accurate calculations. Obviously it’s fascinating to study Pi for theoretical reasons and I’m sure someone can tell me there are also practical reasons to do so. I was just surprised to find out that, given the Planck length, the practical need for precision is astonishingly low compared to what’s been calculated, even moreso compared to your theoretical upper limit!

Can you think of a more efficient method than encoding pi onto the spin state of every electron?

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