The work of calculating the value of pi to five trillion digits has been certified by the Guinness Book of Records as the most accurate in the world, a Japanese man involved in the achievement said Wednesday.
The accreditation went to Shigeru Kondo, a 55-year-old company employee of Iida, Nagano Prefecture, who calculated the value, and Alexander Yee, a graduate student in the United States, who compiled a calculation program that Kondo used.
‘‘I thought (the application) had been rejected because the envelope was thin,’’ Kondo said, noting that the letter came on Tuesday and he immediately emailed Yee to share his delight.
Kondo also said he takes pride in the fact that not just large companies and corporations but also individuals can calculate the value of pi with personal computers, adding he is now trying to double the number of digits.
In the certification letter, dated Jan. 13, the Guinness Book of Records praised the duo for competing with supercomputers with a self-made personal computer. It took Kondo 90 days to pull off the calculation.
Kondo and Lee beat the previous record set by a French engineer who calculated the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter to about 2.7 trillion digits in late 2009.