It looks like there may be a new world record for the “Everest of Memory Tests / Pi Matrix” (though it isn’t official on the page yet).
The last record was 13:34:77 in 2024. This one looks like it’s about 11:54.
Rules:
The first 10,000 digits of Pi are divided into 2,000 5-digit blocks. The testers call out one of these 5-digit sequences, and the candidate must reply with the 5-digit numbers on either side of the number chosen. This happens 50 times.
Related: Pi Matrix New World Record
This is awesome.
The only annoying thing about this would be if you’d already memorized a ton of Pi via scenes that don’t encode 5 digits then it would suck having to re-memorize it all again with a 5-digit layout so that the sequences given for the test would be recognizable.
Like for me, I did Pi in sets of 8 digits, so if I was given digits 16-20, I wouldn’t know where that sequence started because the pattern wouldnt match any of my scenes. It would be the last digit of my second scene and the first 4 of my third scene. I’d have to start from scratch, in like a 3-2 subject/action format or something.