Interesting To Know: Pi Day Celebration

It was March 14, I cheerfully commented on the posts in the Facebook while waiting for guests to arrive for the fiesta celebration in our town in Batangas. I particularly became interested in one of the posts of my co-worker at the Urban Development Department, wishing for a pie since she claimed that it was a Pi day celebration and she has to eat a pie.  On that day, I promised myself to know more about this celebration of Pi. Thank you very much Lira Uichanco Canals for inspiring this post.

The Fascinating Pi

is a Greek letter representing Pi as the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter. It is a mysterious mathematical constant used to calculate the area of a circle and the volume of a sphere. It is considered as irrational with its value expressed as a never-ending fraction or decimal.

The value of Pi is equivalent to 3.14159…….. For most of us, it is commonly known as a number approximating to 3.14. In 2010, with the use of a single desktop computer, a Japanese Systems Engineer, Shigeru Kondo and an American computer science student, Alexander Yee computed Pi to 5 trillion decimal places. It took them 90 days to compute the digit values.

Pi Day is celebrated around the world every 14th of March (with calendar format of 3/14 in the US). It was first celebrated in 1988 with the initiative of Larry Shaw, a physicist at the San Francisco Exploratorium. In 2009, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a non-binding resolution (HRES 224) recognizing March 14, as National Pi Day.

Pi Approximation Day is usually celebrated on July 22 (22/7) as 22 divided by 7 is a rough approximation of Pi (in the European date format that is July 22).

Pi can also be celebrated on the 314th day of the year, which is usually November 10th, but November 9th in leap years.

Incidentally, Pi day (3/14) is also the birthdate of the great scientist, Albert Einstein.

Global Pi Day celebrations often involve the baking, throwing and eating of pies – after their area and circumference have been calculated:

• Pie, any filling with the symbol of Pi into the crust 
• Pizza with a Pi-shaped pepperoni
• Cookies or cupcakes with Pi decorations
• Coffee, pies and donuts. A mnemonic for C = pi*d is Coffee Pie Donuts
• Anything round 

Finding Pi

Pi in Movies

Max Cohen, played by Sean Gullette, is a mathematician searching for the patterns that exist in the world - in nature, science, society, business - everywhere. Pi won the Director's Award at the 1998 Sundance Film Festival.

Pi was specially mentioned in The Matrix films, Star Trek and The Simpsons.

Pi in Songs

Aerial album of Kate Bush in 2005 features a song Pi where she sang more than 100 digits of the number. 

There is even a Pi Day Song entitled "Lose Yourself into the Digits".

Pi in School

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Boston, USA use 3.14159 in their college cheers.

Pi in Sports

The Pi is used to calculate the different starting positions on a 400m running tracks.

Pi in Environment

The length of a river as it meanders from A to B, divided by the straight line from A and B, often equals to Pi (Hans-Henrik Stolum, Cambridge University).

Pi in Fashion

Smells like a true Pi with the PI by Givenchy Eau De Toilette Spray.

Pi in Internet

Piday.org is the official web site for Pi Day Celebration. The site offers information about Pi, online shopping for Pi items such as t-shirts, neckties, and other products. One can also enjoy the Pi-related multimedia and Pi games. Available also in the site is the one million digits of Pi and Pi eCards.