History of Pi Day

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Do you want to throw a pie at someone or eat a pie? Now you can. March 14 is the annual national Pi day where we celebrate the number: 3.141592653589793238462643383279502, a sequence of numbers repeating and going on forever. Pi day was first established on March 14, 1998 and has been celebrated ever since. This day has been an important day in Math history that is remembered every year and it is celebrated with much enthusiasm from mathematicians and math loving people alike. 

Image courtesy of Max Pixel

The first person to have tried this pattern of numbers is Archimedes of Syracuse (287–212 BC). Archimedes proved that the ratio of the area of a circle to the square of its radius is the same constant. From this he passed the method to many other mathematicians and it is now used worldwide. The symbol pi is used in mathematics to find lengths of curves and area of sectors. It is  also used for curved surfaces and finding multiple volumes of different kinds of solids. Pi is then used in another subject which you can guess is physics and engineering, with vibrations of strings to alternating electric currents.

“It’s a way to be relatable with students about math in a silly goofy way that is actually mathematically based. Sometimes we are silly with math and it doesn’t have anything to do with math but pi day is both and that’s fun.” said Ms. Daniel, one of our San Marcos math teachers.

On March 12, 2009, the U.S. The House of Representatives recognized March 14, as National Pi Day. In another event for Pi Day in 2010, the company Google presented on Google Doodle celebrating the holiday. Google set images of circles and various pi symbols. This is how it became a National holiday and became a worldwide favorite holiday for mathematicians and anyone who loves math.

A two fun facts about pi day is that Rajveer Meena, a VIT University, Vellore, India student on 21 of March 2015 he wore a blindfold and recited the pi numbers. He recited over 70,000 decimal places and won the record of the numbers he recited. What really surprised me is that it took over 10 hours to list all of those numbers. Subsequently as a matter of fact about pi it is actually about March which is the third month of the year. The day it lands on is the fourteenth and fortunately those two numbers combined spell out 3.14 the math symbol of pi.

So with that all being said, remember March 14 as the day of pi. Get some pie from the store and enjoy it and remember that it is a symbol of a math number that goes on infinitely.