Interview with Mr. Chao Lu

Mr. Chao Lu kindly answered the Pi World Ranking List the following questions :



1. How long did it take you to recite the 67,890 places ?



It took me 24 hours 4 seconds to recite to the 67,890th place of Pi.





2. Did you take any breaks ?



No. According to the rule set by GWR, the time between two numbers should be no more than 15 seconds. So there was no lunch time, no toilet break during my recitation.





3. How long did it take you to memorize the digits ?



About one year.





4. Are the 67,890 places as far as you got or did you even know more at some time ?



I've got 100,000 digits of pi, and I was going to recite 91,300 digits of them. But I made a mistake at the 67,891th digit. It was "0" but I said "5" in my recitation. Then after a few while the challenge stopped.





5. Did you make any errors during your recitation ? If yes, how many ?



I made a mistake at the 67,891th digit. That is the only one.





6. Did you use a special technique to memorize all these digits ?



Yes. It is based on many traditional techniques of memorizing. I just did some improvement. It is difficult for me to explain it in English because of my poor English. And it has some relationship with Chinese language. I haven't given it a special name yet. And now I am going to publish a book to fully explain it. I can send you a copy when the book is finished if you like. but I am sorry to say that it was written in Chinese. And the main purpose of the book is to teach students how to memorize efficiently on their study, not only on numbers.





7. Was this your first record attempt or did you try before ?



It was my first time to take my attempt in front of News Media Agencies and the public. But I tried several times in front of my classmates before the attempt.





8. Do you have any plans to break your record in the future ?



Perhaps in the long future I will have a try, especially when someone would break my record. but in rencent years, I will be busy with my study and research.





Thank you.





