We all know that π (pi) is a mathematical constant whose value is the ratio of circle's circumference to the diameter. For many of us, it simply means 3.14 which happens to be an approximate value of pi. I am sure few enthusiasts among us know more accurate value as 3.1415..... However that is still the approximate value.
Going by the history, numerous attempts were made to arrive at the exact value. But nobody could arrive at a number with nth bit as zero meaning the value was still not accurate. So, the question remains- what is the "real" value of pi and whether it is possible to get the exact value?
One Yahoo! cloud computing engineer has claimed that he is able to compute specific bits to an extent that nobody in the world has been able to do that. The result- The two quadrillionth bit of π is 0!
This is one heck of a remarkable achievement. So how he did it? He used hadoop technology that Yahoo has championed for years now. The computing needed amazing computing power. In fact, the computation took 23 full days and required 1000 different machines using Hadoop.
This should be celebrated as a great cloud computing milestone!
Read more at BBC website
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