World of the Bizarre

Man breaks world record by memorizing and reciting 14,000 digits

By T.K. Randall
September 4, 2024

Image: The First Guinness Book of Records
Credit: Whowhooh / CC BY-SA 4.0 (adapted) If you think you have a good memory, spare a thought for Deepu V - a 33-year-old from India who has what is arguably the best memory of any human being alive.

In a recent record attempt, he tasked himself with recalling as many digits as he could of Euler's number - a number similar to Pi that has an unlimited, non-repeating series of digits.

To ensure that he wasn't cheating, he was blindfolded and his ears were checked for earpieces beforehand.

To set a valid record, he was not allowed to pause for more than 15 seconds at a time.

Incredibly, the attempt saw him recite 14,000 digits in the space of just 49 minutes - a feat that completely destroyed the previous record of 10,122 digits. Deepu claimed that he spent four months memorizing the digits using a 'tabular' method.

"In the table there are 10 columns and 20 rows," he explained.

"I added five digits in each column, thus in a column of one full row, there are 50 numbers. And with 20 rows on a page there will be a total of 1,000 digits."

"Likewise, in 14 pages I was able to include 14,000 digits."

Exactly where the upper limits of his memorization capabilities lie remains to be seen.

Source: Guinness World Records

Tags: Memory