Memory man aims to learn Pi to 70,000 decimal places

A man with an incredible memory is hoping to get into the record books by learning Pi to 70,000 decimal places.

Tom Morton, from Lytham in Lancashire, said his neurodiverse mind "thinks outside the box" and "numbers to me are like a language" which he learns by associating them with mental images.

The 61-year-old said he hoped to complete the challenge - which will take 10 hours in front of 10 invigilators - after "seven or eight months" of training.

During this time, Tom said he would try to memorise 1,000 numbers each day.

In mathematics, Pi is calculated by dividing the circumference of a circle by its diameter.

The mathematical constant is always 3.14, but the number of digits after the decimal point is infinite.

According to Guinness World Records, the most decimal places ever memorised was 70,000.

This was achieved by Rajveer Meena at the VIT University in Vellore, India, on 21 March 2015.

Tom, who also a writer and illustrator, said that while he has a hereditary condition which limits his mobility, his brain "works like Google and Nasa".

"I was very, very awkward as a teenager, but in my early years I had the most fantastic imagination - it was off the scale," he explained.

He said that when he was 21 "somebody showed me how to remember with pictures and I used my imagination with the system, and it just worked overnight".

Tom added: "Within weeks I was doing shows in pubs and hotels."

Originally from Belfast, Tom worked the cabaret circuit in Blackpool after he memorised the telephone numbers of every hotel, guest house, holiday flats, pub, café and restaurant for the whole of the Fylde - 16,000 numbers.

He said his mind "thinks in terms of mental pictures".

"If you say to me '10' I see Larry the cat, if you say '99' I see an ice cream, if you say '73' I see Cliff Richard in Summer Holiday," he said.

"So if you say to me 'what's the number 73-10-99, I see Larry the cat having an ice cream with Cliff Richard.

"A lot of people think it's a trick - they don't think it's real."

To learn Pi in such incredible detail, Morton will write each digit out on till roll paper which Ripley's Believe It or Not - which showcases unusual facts and artifacts - hopes to display after his world record attempt.

He said the finished roll "will be a mile long".

After this, Tom said he would take a break from memorising figures.

"Who wants to learn numbers for the rest of their life, it would drive you nuts," he joked.

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