Let Them Have PiToday, March 14, is the 25th annual Pi Day. Chances are if you have taken a mathematics course in school, you have heard of pi. No I am not referring to the edible pie, but the mathematical constant pi. Known for about 4,000 years, pi is the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter. It is an irrational number – meaning it cannot be precisely expressed as a fraction and as a decimal it never ends or never repeats. Pi is equal to C/2r (where C = circumference and r = radius), which is approximately 3.1415926535.Pi was first calculated by Archimedes (287-212 BC) but was first measured by the ancient Egyptians and Babylonians. The Greek symbol “π” was introduced by William Jones in 1706 and made popular by Leonhard Euler in 1737; the Greek letter “p” or π was chosen as it represented the perimeter of a circle. Pi has been calculated to over a trillion digits after the decimal, but only 39 digits are needed to precisely calculate the spherical volume of our universe.The earliest known huge celebration of Pi Day was back in 1988 at the San Francisco Exploratorium and organized by Larry Shaw. MIT usually mails out their acceptance letters on Pi Day and starting last year (2012) they posted them online on 3/14 at 6:28pm to honor Tau Time as well. Princeton, NJ is home to some of the largest Pi Day celebrations. Since Pi day also happens to be Einstein’s birthday, and since he lived there for over twenty years, Princeton hosts many wacky events including an Einstein look-alike contest.Whether you are a math enthusiast or not, you can celebrate Pi Day in many ways – from eating pie to doing your own pi calculations – however you celebrate, have fun!
Let Them Have PiToday, March 14, is the 25th annual Pi Day. Chances are if you have taken a mathematics course in school, you have heard of pi. No I am not referring to the edible pie, but the mathematical constant pi. Known for about 4,000 years, pi is the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter. It is an irrational number – meaning it cannot be precisely expressed as a fraction and as a decimal it never ends or never repeats. Pi is equal to C/2r (where C = circumference and r = radius), which is approximately 3.1415926535.Pi was first calculated by Archimedes (287-212 BC) but was first measured by the ancient Egyptians and Babylonians. The Greek symbol “π” was introduced by William Jones in 1706 and made popular by Leonhard Euler in 1737; the Greek letter “p” or π was chosen as it represented the perimeter of a circle. Pi has been calculated to over a trillion digits after the decimal, but only 39 digits are needed to precisely calculate the spherical volume of our universe.The earliest known huge celebration of Pi Day was back in 1988 at the San Francisco Exploratorium and organized by Larry Shaw. MIT usually mails out their acceptance letters on Pi Day and starting last year (2012) they posted them online on 3/14 at 6:28pm to honor Tau Time as well. Princeton, NJ is home to some of the largest Pi Day celebrations. Since Pi day also happens to be Einstein’s birthday, and since he lived there for over twenty years, Princeton hosts many wacky events including an Einstein look-alike contest.Whether you are a math enthusiast or not, you can celebrate Pi Day in many ways – from eating pie to doing your own pi calculations – however you celebrate, have fun!
Edited by Villi1997