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As easy as Pi
Under the supervision of four watchful judges, a blindfolded Michael Abrahamson put his mental prowess to the test last week. His goal: to recall as many digits of Pi as possible in five minutes. Exceeding his own expectation and breaking the South African record, he recalled the first 1 500 digits in an astonishing time of 4 minutes 7 seconds – 53 seconds faster than his target, and without a single error.
JORDAN MOSHE
Says Abrahamson: “This was one of the hardest memory challenges I’ve ever attempted. It’s hard enough to recall the numbers without error, but to do it at breakneck speed for this duration of time is truly a feat I’m very proud of.”
On International Mathematical Pi Day on 14 March, Abrahamson broken the South African record of Marno Hermann, who recalled 1 200 digits in 10 minutes 15 seconds in 2018. Recalling 300 digits more, 6 minutes faster, Abrahamson now awaits official ratification of his record.
A mathematical constant, the number Pi was originally defined as the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter. But it now has various equivalent definitions, and appears in several scientific formulas. As for the yearly challenge, it is popular among people with a penchant for numbers and, more importantly, those eager to join the ranks of the best memorisers in the world.
With a background in actuarial sciences and a flair for mentalism, Abrahamson’s passion for numbers and mental dexterity certainly equipped him for this unique challenge. Fascinated by the capabilities of the brain from a young age, he became the first professional mentalist in South Africa in the 1990s. Alongside a career in sports broadcasting, Abrahamson has also dedicated himself to helping others to unlock the power of the mind, giving lectures and lessons over the past 20 years on how to maximise the brain’s potential.
When a student mentioned the Pi Day challenge to him two years ago, Abrahamson was intrigued. “I’d never heard about it before. When I investigated it and found out that the record is for 7 000 digits recalled, I felt it might be boring as hell to sit and do the same. I wanted it to be shorter and more significant, so I decided to focus not on digits, but on speed.”
Determined to show that the skills he teaches have practical uses, Abrahamson set about the task of memorising digits. He endeavoured to harness the abilities of different parts of the brain through the use of various learning methods, memorising 100 digits at a time. “The difficulty wasn’t the learning, but the ability to recite them at a certain speed,” he says. “I used different skills to improve my speed. I typed, wrote, listened to recordings, and even recited in my car.”
After his initial decision to commit the numbers to memory for use in his shows or lectures, Abrahams decided three months ago to take the task seriously, and attempt to break the record for speed. When he reached out to local radio stations and found them reluctant to air the recitation (they said listeners would find it dull), he chose instead to record the event at his home in the presence of independent judges.
“I contacted four people with backgrounds in mathematics, including a maths teacher and an applied engineer. On Pi Day, we met at my house, and I gave them each a set of sheets with all the digits printed out. After demonstrating how I’d be doing it, I put on a blindfold and we started.”
Abrahamson successfully recalled 1 500 digits at a rate of 6.073 digits per second. Less than five minutes later, he emerged exhausted but triumphant. “I was mentally drained, relieved, and felt like I was in a different world,” he says. “The sense of achievement was astonishing. All the time, energy, and effort had paid off.”
Abrahamson received several messages of congratulations throughout the day, and he was overwhelmed by the interest people had in his undertaking. “I’d been in a bubble while preparing,” he says. “When it was all over, I realised how significant it actually was. People realised just what the human brain can do and what power it has.”
Although he is already considering doubling his record in the coming year, Abrahamson is looking forward to using this achievement in his teaching and mentalism practices. “This is not something I want to use for showing off,” he says. “My record can be used practically to prove to people that they can do anything they put their minds to, using their own brains. They can improve their own abilities, and I look forward to proving how much they can really achieve.”