N ORMALITY A NALYSIS OF C URRENT W ORLD R ECORD

C OMPUTATIONS FOR C ATALAN ’ S C ONSTANT AND A RC L ENGTH

OF A L EMNISCATE WITH a = 1
arXiv:1908.08925v4 [math.GM] 5 Mar 2022

Seungmin Kim∗
Korea Science Academy of KAIST, 105-47, Baegyanggwanmun-ro, Busanjin-gu, Busan, 47162, Republic of Korea
ehf@users.sourceforge.net

August 21, 2019

A BSTRACT
Catalan’s constant and the lemniscate constants have been important mathematical constants of
interest to the mathematical society, yet various properties are unknown. An important property of
significant mathematical constants is whether they are normal numbers. This paper evaluates the
normality of decimal and hexadecimal representations of current world record computations of digits
for the Catalan’s constant (600,000,000,100 decimal digits and 498,289,214,317 hexadecimal digits)
and the arc length of a lemniscate with a = 1 (600,000,000,000 decimal digits and 498,289,214,234
hexadecimal digits). All analyzed frequencies are persistent to the conjecture of Catalan’s constant
and the arc length of a lemniscate with a = 1 being a normal number in bases 10 and 16.

Keywords Catalan’s constant · Lemniscate constant · Normal number · Digit analysis

2010 MSC MSC 11 · MSC 62 · MSC 68

1 Introduction
A normal number at a base of b ∈ Z>0 is a real number such that each of the b digits is distributed in the equal natural
density of 1b . Similarly, for a length n ∈ Z>0 , all bn digit combinations in base b have the same natural density of b−n ,
thus being equally likely in occurrence. This implies that no digit or combination of digits occurs more frequently than
others. Very few computable mathematical constants have been proved as √ normal, although the mathematical society
widely assumes that computable mathematical constants such as π, e, and 2 are normal.
Catalan’s constant and the lemniscate constants have been crucial in the development of mathematics by themselves
and their computation methods, and further related discoveries implicate even greater insight. Catalan’s constant G is
P∞ (−1)n
defined as G = β(2) = n=0 (2n+1) 2 , and whether it is transcendental or even irrational remains an open question

in mathematics [Nesterenko, 2016]. The arc length of a lemniscate with a = 1 is defined as s = √12π [Γ( 41 )]2 . The
R 1 dt
lemniscate constant is defined as L = 2s = 0 √1−t 4
and has been proven as a transcendental number [Finch, 2003;
Todd, 2000]. The values L1 = L2 and L2 = 2G 1
, where G is Gauss’s constant, are sometimes respectively referred to as
the first and second lemniscate constants, both values also proven as transcendental [Finch, 2003; Todd, 2000].
Catalan’s constant, the arc length of a lemniscate with a = 1, and all lemniscate constants are unknown if it is a normal
number. Currently, one of the only plausible methods to approximately verify sequences or irrational numbers are
normal is to perform statistical analysis on a large sample of the sequence or number. Because of this, new world
records of computed mathematical constants are used for checking statistical consistency for the normality of many
important mathematical constants. Trueb [Trueb, 2016] has performed an analysis of digit combinations from length
one to three on the first bπ e c trillion digits of π and has verified that the variance of the frequencies overall complies
∗
Corresponding author, ORCID: 0000-0001-8052-723X

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with the expected variance. New world record calculations for the Catalan’s constant (600,000,000,100 decimal digits
and 498,289,214,317 hexadecimal digits) and the arc length of a lemniscate with a = 1 (600,000,000,000 decimal
digits and 498,289,214,234 hexadecimal digits) as of July 2019 have recently been calculated and verified using the
y-cruncher program [Yee, 2019; Kim, 2019a,b]. This study attempts to expand the insight of these two important
mathematical constants on the conjecture of the Catalan’s constant and the arc length of a lemniscate with a = 1 by
statistically analyzing the calculated world record digit computation results [Kim, 2019a,b].

2 Materials and Methods

Analysis of digits was done using a custom-coded Python 3 script, speed optimized using the Portable PyPy3.6 v7.1.1
JIT compiler [squeaky-pl/portable-pypy, 2019] on CentOS 7.4 using an Intel Xeon (Skylake Purley) CPU. The Python
script was coded so that the integrity of arbitrary length digit combinations is ensured if single digit counts are correct,
and the single-digit counts were initially cross-checked for verification using the Digit Viewer application of y-cruncher
[Yee, 2019]. Statistical analysis and visualization were done using a modified version of the method and code used in
Trueb [Trueb, 2016] using the CERN ROOT Toolkit [Brun and Rademakers, 1997] Release 5.34/38, compiled using
GCC version 7.4.0 on Ubuntu 18.04 LTS using a KVM virtual machine with an Intel Xeon (Haswell) CPU. The source
code used for data analysis was based on the ANSI C99 standard of the C language.
Digit occurrences from length one to three were counted starting from the decimal point. The decimal and hexadecimal
expressions of the Catalan’s constant and the arc length of a lemniscate with a = 1 were respectively used for the
analysis of digit occurrences. The computation results for Catalan’s constant had 600,000,000,100 decimal digits and
498,289,214,317 hexadecimal digits for each base expression after the decimal point, and the computation results for
the arc length of a lemniscate with a = 1 had 600,000,000,000 decimal digits and 498,289,214,234 hexadecimal digits
for each base expression after the decimal point. The expected variance of the frequencies and the expected error of
the variance has been calculated by assuming the frequencies followed a binomial distribution around the limiting
frequency of b−k [Trueb, 2016]. Accessory regions were plotted with the area between the two vertical lines closest
to the center of the figure representing the region within one standard deviation and the remaining area between two
remaining vertical lines representing the region between one and two standard deviations [Trueb, 2016].

3 Results

Figures 1 to 6 depict the frequency distributions of all sequences from a length of one to three for the decimal and
hexadecimal representations of Catalan’s constant in the form of a histogram. Table 1 lists the predicted and actual
variances for the frequency distributions of Catalan’s constant.
Figures 7 to 12 depict the frequency distributions of all sequences from a length of one to three for the decimal and
hexadecimal representations of the arc length of a lemniscate with a = 1 in the form of a histogram. Table 2 lists the
predicted and actual variances for the frequency distributions of the arc length of a lemniscate with a = 1.

Entries 10 Entries 100

Number of Sequences

Number of Sequences

Mean 1.000e−01 Mean 1.000e−02

1 Variance 1.097e−13 6 Variance 1.939e−14

5
0.8

4
0.6

0.4
2

0.2
1

−3
0 0 ×10
0.099999 0.1 0.100001 9.9995 10 10.0005
Frequency Frequency

Figure 1: Frequencies of all combinations of length Figure 2: Frequencies of all combinations of length 2
1 (digits 0–9) in the decimal representation of the (00–99) in the decimal representation of the Catalan’s
Catalan’s constant. constant.

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30 Entries 1000 2.2 Entries 16

Number of Sequences

Number of Sequences
Mean 1.000e−03 Mean 6.250e−02
Variance 1.642e−15 2 Variance 1.755e−13
25 1.8

1.6
20
1.4

1.2
15
1

0.8
10
0.6

5 0.4

0.2
−3 −3
0 ×10 0 ×10
0.9999 1 1.0001 62.499 62.5 62.501
Frequency Frequency

Figure 3: Frequencies of all combinations of length Figure 4: Frequencies of all combinations of length 1
3 (000–999) in the decimal representation of the Cata- (digits 0–F) in the hexadecimal representation of the
lan’s constant. Catalan’s constant.

Entries 256 90 Entries 4096

Number of Sequences

Number of Sequences

Mean 3.906e−03 Mean 2.441e−04

8 Variance 8.742e−15 80 Variance 5.024e−16
7 70

6 60

5 50

4 40

3 30

2 20

1 10
−3 −3
0 ×10 0 ×10
3.906 3.9062 3.9064 3.9066 0.2441 0.24415 0.2442
Frequency Frequency

Figure 5: Frequencies of all combinations of length Figure 6: Frequencies of all combinations of length
2 (00–FF) in the hexadecimal representation of the 3 (000–FFF) in the hexadecimal representation of the
Catalan’s constant. Catalan’s constant.

Table 1: Predicted and actual variances of frequencies of all sequences of length 1–3 in the decimal and hexadecimal
representations of Catalan’s constant.
Base Length of Sequence Predicted Variance and Error of Actual Variance of Frequencies Deviation [σ]
Frequencies
10 1 (1.500 ± 0.707) × 10−13 1.097 × 10−13 0.570
10 2 (1.650 ± 0.235) × 10−14 1.939 × 10−14 −1.232
−15 −15
10 3 (1.665 ± 0.074) × 10 1.642 × 10 0.306
−13 −13
16 1 (1.176 ± 0.429) × 10 1.755 × 10 −1.349
−15 −15
16 2 (7.809 ± 0.692) × 10 8.742 × 10 −1.349
−16 −16
16 3 (4.898 ± 0.108) × 10 5.024 × 10 −1.160

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2.2 Entries 10 Entries 100

Number of Sequences

Number of Sequences
Mean 1.000e−01 Mean 1.000e−02
2 Variance 2.017e−13 6 Variance 2.072e−14
1.8
5
1.6

1.4
4
1.2

1 3

0.8
2
0.6

0.4
1
0.2
−3
0 0 ×10
0.099999 0.1 0.100001 9.9995 10 10.0005
Frequency Frequency

Figure 7: Frequencies of all combinations of length Figure 8: Frequencies of all combinations of length 2
1 (digits 0–9) in the decimal representation of the arc (00–99) in the decimal representation of the arc length
length of a lemniscate with a = 1. of a lemniscate with a = 1.

30 Entries 1000 2.2 Entries 16

Number of Sequences

Number of Sequences
Mean 1.000e−03 Mean 6.250e−02
Variance 1.714e−15 2 Variance 1.213e−13
25 1.8

1.6
20
1.4

1.2
15
1

0.8
10
0.6

5 0.4

0.2
−3 −3
0 ×10 0 ×10
0.9999 1 1.0001 62.499 62.5 62.501
Frequency Frequency

Figure 9: Frequencies of all combinations of length Figure 10: Frequencies of all combinations of length
3 (000–999) in the decimal representation of the arc 1 (digits 0–9) in the hexadecimal representation of the
length of a lemniscate with a = 1. arc length of a lemniscate with a = 1.

Entries 256 90 Entries 4096

Number of Sequences

Number of Sequences

Mean 3.906e−03 Mean 2.441e−04

8 Variance 8.556e−15 80 Variance 4.911e−16
7 70

6 60

5 50

4 40

3 30

2 20

1 10
−3 −3
0 ×10 0 ×10
3.906 3.9062 3.9064 3.9066 0.2441 0.24415 0.2442
Frequency Frequency

Figure 11: Frequencies of all combinations of length Figure 12: Frequencies of all combinations of length
2 (00–99) in the hexadecimal representation of the arc 3 (000–999) in the hexadecimal representation of the
length of a lemniscate with a = 1. arc length of a lemniscate with a = 1.

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Table 2: Predicted and actual variances of frequencies of all sequences of length 1–3 in the decimal and hexadecimal
representations of the arc length of a lemniscate with a = 1.
Base Length of Sequence Predicted Variance and Error of Actual Variance of Frequencies Deviation [σ]
Frequencies
10 1 (1.500 ± 0.707) × 10−13 2.017 × 10−13 −0.731
−14 −14
10 2 (1.650 ± 0.235) × 10 2.072 × 10 −1.798
10 3 (1.665 ± 0.074) × 10−15 1.714 × 10−15 −0.660
16 1 (1.176 ± 0.429) × 10−13 1.213 × 10−13 −0.086
−15 −15
16 2 (7.809 ± 0.692) × 10 8.556 × 10 −1.080
−16 −16
16 3 (4.898 ± 0.108) × 10 4.911 × 10 −0.113

4 Discussion
The frequencies of sequences from length 1 to 3 for both decimal and hexadecimal representations in both Catalan’s
constant and the arc length of a lemniscate with a = 1 overall coincide with the expected distribution. The distribution
of frequencies for Catalan’s constant has a maximum deviation of 1.232 standard deviations (absolute value) for
the decimal representation, and 1.349 standard deviations (absolute value) for the hexadecimal representation. The
distribution of frequencies for the arc length of a lemniscate with a = 1 has a maximum deviation of 1.798 standard
deviations (absolute value) for the decimal representation, and 1.080 standard deviations (absolute value) for the
hexadecimal representation.
These results for a very large sample data of around 600 billion digits of both Catalan’s constant and the arc length
of a lemniscate with a = 1 are statistically persistent to the conjecture of Catalan’s constant and the arc length of a
lemniscate with a = 1 being a normal number in bases 10 and 16.
In this study, it has been possible to make a statistical assumption of whether Catalan’s constant and the arc length of a
lemniscate with a = 1 is a normal number. Further approaches based on the methods used in this study can enable
the mathematical society to gain evidence on the normality of a large range of computable mathematical constants of
interest.

Acknowledgment
The author greatly thanks Dr. Peter Trueb for providing code and insights to formulating the methods for data analysis
in this study, Mr. Alexander J. Yee for providing insights related to his program y-cruncher, and Dr. Ian Cutress for
verifying the world record computation for the arc length of a lemniscate with a = 1.

Data Availability Statement

The data that support the findings of this study are openly available in the Internet Archive at https://archive.
org/details/catalan_190618, reference number ark:/13960/t9f55d078, and at https://archive.org/
details/lemworldrec_190512, reference number ark:/13960/t56f3gj32.

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