Mathematician Calculates Pi to 10T Digits

A Japanese man used his homemade computer to calculate the value of pi to 10 trillion digits, breaking the 5-trillion-digit record he himself set last August. Systems engineer Shigeru Kondo, 56, started crunching the numbers on a computer using a 48-terabyte hard drive in October and finished Sunday, the Telegraph reports, citing Kyodo News. He will apply to the Guinness Book of Records.

There were a few challenges along the way: The temperature in the computer room got as high as 104 degrees Fahrenheit, meaning “we could dry the laundry immediately but we had to pay [almost $400] a month for electricity,” his wife recalls. Last year's record was almost thwarted when his daughter’s hair dryer tripped a circuit breaker, Kondo says. (More math stories.)