“When I see numbers, my brain gets a rush.”
Michael Arguelles, pictured with principal Peter Mannarino, accepts a certificate marking his victory in Christ the King’s Pi Memorization Contest. Photo Courtesy of Christ the King HS.
That is how 17-year-old Christ the King senior, Michael Arguelles explains his fascination with numbers. The same fascination that led him to a victory in the Pi Memorization Contest sponsored by his school.
Pi is most easily understood as the mathematical constant that represents the ratio between the circumference and the diameter of a circle. But in the complex world of mathematics it has a far more important property – it is an infinite decimal – a number that goes on forever and never repeats itself.
The chase to find a pattern in Pi has led people to memorize record numbers of its decimal digits. The reigning world champion is chemistry student Chao Lu of China who recited Pi from memory to 67,890 places, at the Northwest A&F University in China, November of 2005. Lu attempted the record after practicing for more than 4 years. His last attempt took exactly 1 day and 4 minutes. It was recorded on 26 video tapes and entered into the Guinness Book of World Records, the entire event was witnessed and documented.
“Pi fascinates me,” the soon to be graduate told The Forum. “I decided to try it one day.”
“It” was the quest to memorize as many digits as he could, and it began three years ago. It started out as a practice – every time there was a spare moment, there was “a chance to add some digits.”
“It took a couple of months and I had it on the way. I had memorized 200 digits.”
But it wasn’t long before the challenge to surpass 200 became a successful new pursuit and this year, in taking the title for the third consecutive year, Arguelles successfully recited the first 1,000 digits of Pi. The attempt took 6 minutes – that number he has worked down from between 8 and 9. And of course, he reminds, you have to keep practicing to retain the digits – “I recite at least 3 or 4 times a month. You have to keep it up.”
Goals for the future are to get his digits up to 2,000 by next year. From there…who knows?
Arguelles was a member of the Christ the King Math team that recently placed first in the New York State Mathematics League.
The relationship with mathematics will be further cultivated when he starts his freshman year at CUNY Hunter College, on a math scholarship, in September.
