Feynman point

English

Etymology

Named after Richard Feynman, who is claimed to have talked about it in a lecture.

Proper noun

Feynman point

1. The position (at the 762nd digit after the decimal point) in the decimal expansion of pi at which a sequence of six consecutive nines first appears, unexpectedly early in view of the expected and otherwise apparent randomness of said expansion.
   • 2012, Patricia Barnes-Svarney, Thomas E Svarney, The Handy Math Answer Book, 2nd edition, Visible Ink Press, page 41:

     What is the Feynman Point? The Feynman Point was named after Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman (1918–1988), who once joked he wanted to memorize pi up to "999999 ... and so on and so on," as if to say pi continues from the Feynman Point with nines forever. This is not true, of course, and the sequence of nines is a mere coincidence—thus, the joke of the Feynman Point.