Sanchit Sharma, a third year undergraduate BMS Student from SSCBS, Delhi University has successfully broken the the World Record for memorising the most decimal places of Euler’s Number. Here’s his story.
“Delighted to share with all friends and family that I recently broke the World Record for memorising the most decimal places of Euler’s Number (Euler’s Number is an irrational number with decimals going on endlessly without any fixed pattern, denoted by ‘e’). I stumbled across this record a couple of months back when it was at 2500 digits. I felt that I really had a shot at improving it (my friends in college know very well about my passion for memorising all kinds of things xD), and incorporating my fascination for Pi, which is perhaps the most renowned irrational number, I decided to aim for 3141 digits (Pi is 3.141…) as a tribute.
The venue for the attempt was my alma mater, St. Columba’s School, and the attempt had to take place in the presence of two completely independent witnesses (people who do not know me and aren’t related to me in any manner) with the school’s ever helpful P.E. Teachers taking charge of keeping time. Wearing a blindfold throughout the attempt (and a collar mic for clear audio), I was able to recall all digits successfully in 49:49:34 minutes. Even though in practice I had clocked much quicker times, I felt it was wise to take some more time and think before speaking so as to get them all right in the first attempt itself. (There was no time to beat as I overtook the record in quantity, just that there shouldn’t be a gap of more than 15s between reciting any two digits, as per the guidelines)
After submitting all evidence to Guinness, which included signed statements by me, the independent witnesses and timekeepers, the complete unedited video and requisite photographic evidence, it was quite an anxious wait for the verdict. And it was all worth it!” Sanchit mentioned in a Facebook post here.
We congratulate Sanchit for this achievement and making his family, friends and the whole nation proud.
