Enjoying a Bounty of Pi

Anika Dasgupta’s brain isn’t specially supercharged, she says—she just knows how to make a “sandwich” out of similar sets of numbers, and use that to help remember the filling in between. It’s one of many strategies the University of Maryland senior bioengineering major employs to memorize thousands of digits of pi, the famous ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter, which goes from 3.14 to infinity, literally.

“I don’t just rote-memorize anything, because I feel like that is not quite as fun as finding patterns within the things you memorize,” Dasgupta said. Her memorizing mastery isn’t up there with world record holder Suresh Kumar Sharma, who can recite over 70,000 digits, but then she’s doing it for fun, not bragging rights. Plus, the constant brain workout helps in classes. Now, remembering lecture content is as easy as … well, pi.

Enjoy this latest installment of UMD’s “Peer Review” video series highlighting remarkable UMD faculty, staff, students and alums. And if you want to see a recitation of pi in real life by math Professor Emeritus Denny Gulick, visit the College of Computer, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences’ Pi Day celebration at 1 p.m. Friday in the rotunda of Kirwan Hall. Pie will be served.