[Vocabulary] meaning of the sentences 'broken digits into sentences'

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njt2009

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I found the following sentences from a book 'born on a blue day' and I do not understand their meaning.

" The digits were further broken up into 'sentences' of 100 digits each, to make them as easily readable as possible and to minimise the risk that I might misread the numbers and learn some of them incorrectly."

The author was trying to remember the 22,500 digits of PI and his partners tried to help him by print out the numbers onto A4 sheets, 1,000 digits per page and do something more as the above sentenses to help him of which I do not understand.

Does it mean he translate the digits into words?
 

MikeNewYork

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I found the following sentences from a book 'born on a blue day' and I do not understand their meaning.

" The digits were further broken up into 'sentences' of 100 digits each, to make them as easily readable as possible and to minimise the risk that I might misread the numbers and learn some of them incorrectly."

The author was trying to remember the 22,500 digits of PI and his partners tried to help him by print out the numbers onto A4 sheets, 1,000 digits per page and do something more as the above sentenses to help him of which I do not understand.

Does it mean he translate the digits into words?

That's what I get from the use of "sentences".
 

Raymott

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I found the following sentences from a book 'Born on a Blue Day' and I do not understand their meaning.
...
Does it mean he translate the digits into words?
No, I don't think so. Note that 'sentence' is quoted within your quote. He doesn't mean a literal sentence. He means he is framing the digits into 100 item pieces. The word 'sentence' is sometimes used in maths and computer science for strings of symbols with a beginning and end.
 

Rover_KE

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The author was trying to remember the 22,500 digits of PI...

My old maths teacher, Polly Hedron, used to say that pi is an irrational number, so the guy was trying to remember its first 22,500 digits.
 

MikeNewYork

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I didn't mean to say that I thought he was translating the numbers into actual words. I meant that he was putting the numbers into groups of 100 numbers as if each group were a separate "sentence" because "sentence" was in quotes. I was not clear. :oops:
 
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PeterValk

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Not a teacher, but:

"...his partners tried to help him by printing out the numbers onto A4 sheets..."
 
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