Have you heard of Pi Day? It happens every year on March 14. Get it? March 14, or 3-1-4 … the first three digits of the famous mathematical constant pi. Pi, in case you’re wondering, is:
… the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter.
No matter how large or small the circle, that ratio always works out to 3.14. It seems a bit magical. But it’s just the magic of mathematics. Plus, pi is a never-ending number. You often see it written as 3.14, but in fact it’s approximately equal to 3.14159 … and so on, into infinity. That sense of infinity is in part what makes pi – and Pi Day – so much fun.
So here’s a quick guide to Pi Day, which is celebrated by science lovers all over the world. It is a unique combination of fun and education, and anyone can participate. Or you can watch the Exploratorium’s annual Pi Day celebration, by tuning into the video at the top of this page. Click on the video, and you’ll find a countdown in the lower left to when it’ll go live.
Another Pi Day overview and countdown here
5 facts about pi
People compete in memorizing it. Rajveer Meena has the record for memorizing the most decimal places of pi at 70,000.
It’s used as stress tests for computers. Computing pi is a kind of “digital cardiogram” for computers.
A Givenchy men’s cologne is named pi. So you can smell like pi, too, if you are the intellectual and visionary kind.
Pi by other names. Pi is also known as Archimedes’ constant or Ludolph’s number.
Heroes sometimes use pi. For example, Spock foils an evil computer in Wolf in the Fold (the 14th episode of the 2nd season of the American sci fi TV series Star Trek), by preoccupying it forever, by having it calculate pi’s value.
By happy coincidence, March 14 is also Albert Einstein‘s birthday!
Trivia via National Today: Pi Day
Celebrate Pi Day with NASA
This year, you can once again join NASA in celebrating Pi Day. The online event runs from March 10 to March 15. There are many resources available, and you can take part in the NASA Pi Day Challenge! This is the 9th installment of the annual challenge and includes four new illustrated math problems for students to solve. These math problems help students use pi to explore Earth, the moon, Mars and exoplanets. NASA will announce the answers on March 15.
The challenge includes a Teachable Moments article on the science behind the math problems, with free downloads and more.
Read more at Celebrate Pi Day with NASA.
Take part in The NASA Pi Day Challenge.
History of Pi Day
Physicist Larry Shaw founded Pi Day in 1988, as part of his great work the ground-breaking science museum Exploratorium in San Francisco. As part of the first Pi Day festivities, both staff and the public marched around one of the circular spaces in the museum while eating fruit pies. Exploratorium continues its Pi Day celebration. You can watch their event live on YouTube at the video at the top of this post.
In the United States, the U.S. House of Representatives officially recognized Pi Day as an annual event – National Pi Day – on March 12, 2009.
Today, many people and institutions celebrate Pi Day, including students, teachers, parents, museums, science centers and planetariums.
More NASA resources
This year, there are many resources and ways you can celebrate Pi Day with NASA, including:
10 Ways to Celebrate Pi Day With NASA on March 14
In addition, you can also download mobile and web backgrounds on The NASA Pi Day Challenge page.
A ‘pi planet’
Also, did you know that there’s even a pi planet? It is an exoplanet, known as K2-315b, whose orbital period matches the value of pi. That is, this planet orbits its star every 3.14 Earth-days.
It is, in fact, almost the same size as Earth, with a radius 95% that of our own planet. That’s also about the same size as Venus, and like our nearby sister world, it’s a blisteringly hot place, with temperatures up to 350 degrees Fahrenheit (177 degrees C). It orbits a red dwarf (or M dwarf) star that’s cooler than our sun and only about 1/5 as large, called EPIC 249631677, which is 186 light-years from Earth.
Bottom line: It’s almost time for Pi Day, an annual mathematical event for science lovers. Here’s how to celebrate on March 14 and take part in the NASA Pi Day Challenge!
The post Pi Day is March 14. Here’s how to celebrate first appeared on EarthSky.
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