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Pi Has Your Number

Use a touchscreen to search for any number hidden in the first 3 million digits of pi.


Where:   Osher Gallery 1: Human Phenomenon
Exhibit Developer:   Paul Dancstep, 2016

The digits of pi go on forever, without ever falling into a repeating pattern. Therefore any sequence of numbers you can think of—your ZIP code, your birthday, your phone number—are bound to appear in the digits of pi sooner or later.

This exhibit features a 12-foot long poster containing over three million tiny digits of pi. A computer at the exhibit lets you look up the position of any number sequence while a sliding magnifier can be positioned for you to see the sequence for yourself.

The odds are pretty good that your six digit birthday is somewhere on this poster. But to have an equally good chance of finding your 10-digit phone number you'd need 4 billion digits–and the poster would need to stretch all the way across the Bay to Oakland.

 
Phenomena: Numbers, Randomness
Aliases: Pi Search
Collections: Core Experience: Math

More to explore

Pi Day 2020
About Pi (π) Day

Learn about π, π Day history, and play with π activities.

Science activity to estimate pi with the random tossing of toothpicks
Pi Toss

Randomly toss some toothpicks, with pi as your reward.

Pi Toss - Science Snack Activity

Asked to get an estimate for the famed mathematical constant pi (π), try the random tossing of toothpicks.

Cutting Pi

It may be hard to cut pie into equal pieces, but in this Snack, you can cut string into pi pieces!

Related exhibits

Pi Toss
Pi Toss

Toss some chips to estimate pi.

Pi Shrine
Pi Shrine

This circular piece of Exploratorium history has held pride of place in π Day festivities since 1988.

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