The record for memorizing the largest number of characters in Pi has been broken again. And this was done by a man who prepared for the achievement in just three months! 70-year-old history teacher from Khimki Vladimir Kondryakov reproduced 13,183 digits of pi, spending 4 hours and 12 minutes on it. The teacher decided on this adventure in memory of those who died during the Great Patriotic War. Because Vladimir Alekseevich himself is the same age as the Victory, he was born on May 6, 1945. "MK" phoned the record holder and learned the secret of memory training.
Every student knows that pi is 3.14. But few people remember what follows next. The magic of numbers worries only a select few fans of the mysterious number and lovers of mathematics.
“I have always had a special attitude to numbers,” says Vladimir Alekseevich. - let's just say, I felt the absolute absence of rejection in front of them.
Vladimir Kondryakov is a former military man; he devoted 25 years to military service. Before the collapse of the USSR, he quit and got a job at lyceum number 13 in Khimki, where he still works. The teacher always paid attention to the development of memory, tried not to use cheat sheets and memorize as much information as possible. For example, while serving on the Iranian border, his duties included issuing machine guns to soldiers and writing down numbers in a notebook. Very soon he realized that there was no need to rewrite the number from the weapon every time, he memorized them all. When Vladimir Alekseevich came to school, he immediately established a principle for himself - no reading lessons from a piece of paper. He memorized all the material with all the numbers and dates.
In order to prepare for the record, Kondryakov developed his own system for memorizing signs. Its essence is encoding numbers into texts. The teacher aimed not only to break the previous record - 11,106 characters, but also to more than double it, to 23,000 characters. He divided this amount into blocks of 50 digits each. There are 460 blocks in total. He presented each one in the form of pictures, and then came up with a system to link them all in a bundle according to the domino principle. And he learned everything by heart. And he did it in just three months. It took about 17 minutes to reproduce each thousand numbers.
On the day of the demonstration of the miracles of memory, Vladimir Alekseevich ran 7 km as usual. And then he went to a meeting with the jury. In order to fix the record, it was necessary to write numbers with chalk on a blackboard. On average, about 500 characters fit on one board, then they were erased and new ones were written. Kondryakov admits that it was hard. Still, a long marathon worsens concentration, and physically it is not easy.
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“Four hours later I felt that I was tired,” recalls Vladimir Alekseevich. - I wrote 13183 characters and suddenly stumbled on the number 7. There should have been 6. There was only one attempt, so the jury fixed this number.
The figure is really impressive. The teacher himself is very pleased with the result. When they found out about this at school, everyone started to congratulate their colleague and teacher. For the victory he was awarded a diploma and an honorary badge. Vladimir Alekseevich will not try to break his own record - it takes too much time and preparation.
- I know for sure the secret of what affects memory, in my case it is primarily a healthy lifestyle, - says Kondryakov. - I have never smoked or abused alcohol. Since the time of service, he has accustomed himself to daily jogging. This provides constant vigor.
Vladimir Alekseevich dedicated his record to the 70th anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War, his grandfather died in the war. He also timed this event to the 25th anniversary of teaching.
Poem for memorizing the signs of the number Pi:
Three, fourteen, fifteen, nine two, six five, three five
Eight nine, seven and nine, three two, three eight, forty six
Two six four, three three eight, three two seven nine, five zero two
Eight eight and four, nineteen, seven, one.
Elena Aprelskaya
