[ELI5] What’s the benefit of calculating Pi to now 62.8 trillion digits?

Question

[ELI5] What’s the benefit of calculating Pi to now 62.8 trillion digits?

In: Mathematics

Answer 1

Calculating pi is a well-understood problem that can be used in a couple of basic ways:

* Test (and show off) your fantastic computing system by using the same algorithm others have used to generate more digits within the same amount of time (or the same number of digits in a shorter time, which amounts to the same thing).
* Test/demonstrate a new algorithm, which could have implications for other problems.

Otherwise, actually knowing the value of pi out beyond [39 digits](https://www.sciencefriday.com/segments/how-many-digits-of-pi-do-we-really-need/) is kind of pointless.