Researchers use AI to catalog pi formulas

Happy PiDay!

Just in time for PiDay, a team of researchers at the Israel Institute of Technology have announced the results of using AI-based computer tools to automatically catalog a large body of existing pi formulas.

In particular, these researchers found underlying structure in these formulas, in particular a “conservative matrix field” (CMF) functions as a sort of fingerprint, enabling researchers to automatically categorize pi formulas from 455,050 papers downloaded from the internet. These were first reduced to 385 distinct formulas, then analyzed using the CMF tool.

Their CMF signatures showed that 43% of these formulas all descend from similar

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PiDay 2026: Double crossword

Yes, in just a few days we will once again celebrate Pi Day (3/14 in North American date notation). Our custom on this site has been to offer a crossword puzzle on a math or Pi theme. This year we offer two puzzles (take your pick or do both). Some notes:

1. Each puzzle is written to standards of The New York Times daily puzzles. 2. In each puzzle, a handful of the squares contain two letters. 3. No mathematical knowledge is required to solve either puzzle. 4. The overall difficulty of these puzzles is Tuesday or Wednesday on the

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