Yahoo! cloud computing engineer, Tsz Wo (Nicholas) Sze has gone further in computing specific bits of π (pi), the mathematical constant, than anyone else in the world.

While most of us are satisfied with using pi to just two decimal places (3.14) to find the area of a circle, Nicholas is one in a long line of mathematicians and engineers who wants a bigger slice of pi. And so, we now know: The Two Quadrillionth Bit of π is 0!
Yes, you read that right; “Two Quadrillionth.” Wow.

The circumference of the visible universe can be calculated using a mere 39 or 40 decimal places, so what are Yahoos like Nicholas doing out at those outer reaches? For Nicholas, this was a project ideally suited to flex the muscles of Hadoop, the open source technology at the epicenter of big data and cloud computing.  The computation took 23 full days and required 1000 different machines using Hadoop.

Eric Baldeschwieler, Yahoo!’s vice president of Hadoop engineering, explains how this relates to our business. “We are a technology company with big data at our core, so it’s exciting to see a new world record that demonstrates the sheer power of distributed systems like Hadoop.”  Yahoo! engineers and scientists have been developing Hadoop since 2005 with a goal similar to Nicholas’ in mind – to push the limits of technology to better understand the complex algorithms and equations that make our business tick.

“The more we can tap our infrastructure to do heavy lifting, the more quickly we can innovate,” said Baldeschwieler.

Learning how to use such computing power, especially across distributed systems involving many computers, allows engineers to develop techniques for speeding up other calculations and algorithms. Faster data crunching translates into more exciting, relevant and fun Internet experiences for Yahoo! users.

Mostly, though, it’s just really, really cool. Congratulations, Nicholas and cheers to the power of Hadoop!

See the story by BBC News for additional details.