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TOKYO (AP) - A team of researchers at a leading national
university have set a world record by calculating the value of pi
to 1.24 trillion places, one of the researchers said Friday.
>>

I am very, very fond of pi, but I don't think I've ever been particularly excited about the calculation of huge numbers of its digits.  Suppose someone finally found some kind of pattern in the digits -- would that be so very surprising?  (OK, I admit that if the pattern were a message from another inhabited planet, *that* would be something to write home about!)

But I suspect I'm missing something.  Can someone try to explain to me what's the big deal about more and more digits of pi, other than getting into Guinness?

Thanks,

Dan