Pi Day

Today, March 14 is celebrated as Pi Day. Do you want to make a guess as to why? No its got nothing to do with the blockbuster "Life of Pi". If you know your Circles well and aced your geometry while growing up you should know a constant called Pi (π) whose value is approximately 3.14. Hence, today is Pi Day!

What is Pi ?

Pi (π) is the mathematical constant that has been known for almost 4000 years. Its value is the ratio of any circle’s circumference to its diameter  or the ratio of a circle’s area to the square of its radius. The value of pi is approximately equal to 3.14159265, but it is an irrational number and its decimal representation never ends or repeats.

                                  Mosaic outside the mathematics building at the Technische Universitat Berlin                                       

Some cool facts on Pi :

• The official celebration on Pi Day begins at 1:59 p.m., to make an appropriate 3.14159 when combined with the date.

•  Albert Einstein was born on Pi Day (3/14/1879) in Ulm Wurttemberg, Germany

• William Jones introduced the symbol “π” in the 1706, and it was later popularized by Leonhard Euler in 1737.

• Pi was first rigorously calculated by one of the greatest mathematicians of the ancient world, Archimedes of Syracuse (287-212 B.C.). He was so engrossed in his work that he did not notice that Roman soldiers had taken the Greek city of Syracuse. When a Roman soldier approached him, he yelled in Greek “Do not touch my circles!” The Roman soldier simply cut off his head and went on his business!

• In the Greek alphabet, π (piwas) is the sixteenth letter. In the English alphabet, p is also the sixteenth letter. 

• We can never truly measure the circumference or the area of a circle because we can never truly know the value of π. Pi is an irrational number, meaning its digits go on forever in a seemingly random sequence.

• Since there are 360 degrees in a circle and pi is intimately connected with the circle, some mathematicians were delighted to discover that the number 360 is at the 359th digit position of Pi.

• In 2005, Lu Chao of China memorized 67,890 places of Pi and is considered the current Pi champion.

• A mysterious 2008 crop circle in Britain shows a coded image representing the first 10 digits of Pi.

• Potentially every possible number you can think of is hidden somewhere in Pi– your date of birth, phone number, or even your bank details.

• Want to find your birthdate in Pi? Try this out www.facade.com/legacy/amiinpi  (My birthdate is at this location in Pi : 30035)!

• Pi has inspired a particularly tricky form of creative writing called Pilish. These are poems – or "piems" – where the number of letters of successive words is determined by pi.

Here's something for you to smile about !  “What do you get if you divide the circumference of a jack-o'-lantern by its diameter? Pumpkin π.”

Have a great Pi Day everyone!