National Pi Day

National Pi Day:

National Pi Day is annually celebrated on the 14th of March. It was also decided as the International Day of Mathematics by UNESCO’S fortieth General Conference on 19th November 2019. This day is to celebrate the mathematical constant pie. It has an approx. value of 3.14.

Twitter Hashtags:

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Related: Other National Days Celebrated on March 14th:

National Children’s Craft Day

National Potato Chip Day

National Learn About Butterflies Day

National Write Your Story Day

Why National Pi Day:

The first time Pie Day was observed in 1988 by Larry Shaw. He threw a large party at the San Francisco Exploratorium, where he worked as a physicist. This day was celebrated back then by staff and the public marching in circular paces and consuming pies!

On the 12th of March, 2019, the United States House of Representatives passed a resolution to recognize 14th March as National Pie Day. It was a non-binding resolution. Google commemorated this day in 2010 by creating a special doodle. In that doodle, the word Google laid on images of circles and pi symbol. Google always came up with creative ideas on this day. In 2018 google created a pie of Dominique Ansel, with a circumference of the pie divided by the diameter.

The entire month of March is celebrated as The Pi Month by mathematicians and others worldwide. This day has a special significance as when this day is written in the format month day year; it turns out to be 3 14 15. These are the starting digits of the constant Pi. On this day, at exactly 9:26:53, the date and time together represent the first 10 digits of pi!

Pi is a mathematical constant that has interesting properties. It is the value that we get when we divide the circumference of a circle by its diameter. The circle can be as big as the size of the Earth or as small as a molecule. But, whenever we divide that circle’s circumference with its radius, then the value is always constant, and this is the value assigned to the constant pi. Pie has a never-ending value, and for 4000 years or more, scientists try to find its constant value.

When written in fraction form, 3.14 or pi is 22/7. Thus, for this reason, the 22nd of July is celebrated as Pi Approximation Day. This value is, however, shows the correct value of Pi only till two decimal places. This discovery dates back to the times of Archimedes.

Some mathematics in modern time tries to replace Pi with tau. This is to get a relationship between the circumference and radius of the circle. To make this more famous, they even celebrate Tau Day. But, Pi is still winning over Tau or any other scientific constant.

Pie is not only used for studies but is sometimes also used as a pop culture icon. It has references everywhere from Star Trek to Simpsons. In Star Trek, when an alien entity took control over a computer, to calculate all the digits of Pi, Spock commanded as it was an impossible task. Apu claimed that he knew almost 40,000 digits of Pi. He proved it by stating the fact that the 40,000th digit of Pi is 1. Similarly, Pi is popular and has gained Interest of scientist and mathematics and people from arts background all around the world!

How Can We Observe National Pi Day:

This day is celebrated all around the world in many different interesting ways. Let’s look into them!

• People celebrate this day by eating or throwing pies at each other. This is done just because of the fact that pie and pi are homophones. Homophones in English means the words that mean different, but they sound the same!
• People discuss the significance of constant Pi.
• Some schools often hold a competition to see who can remember the maximum digits of Pi. The student who correctly says maximum digits after the decimal point in the smallest interval of time wins.
• You can host a pie-eating competition. It is definitely the funniest way to celebrate this day. But definitely, a good day to cheat your diet and consume tons of calories!
• Watch Life of Pi.
• Look for Pi at all the places. Observe the digits or the symbol on the streets at your schools, offices, etc.
• Embrace your nerdiness on this day. Wear a shirt with the symbol of Pi or rock some accessory that has Pi written on it!
• Eat food that starts with the letter pi. It can be pizza or pineapple, or any other item.
• Show some love and spread the awareness of this day on your social media handle. Put up posts with hashtags like #NationalPieDay and #PieDay.

Interesting Facts On National Pi Day:

Let’s look into some fun facts about Pie day!

• The Greek symbol π denotes pi as it is the first letter of the Greek word “περίμετρος,” this word means Perimeter.
• The exact value of Pi can never ever be calculated. So technically, we can never find the accurate value of the circumference or area of the circle.
• Rajeev Meena at VIT University, Vellore, India, created a record by narrating a maximum number of digits of Pi. On 21 March 2015, he created a record by narrating almost 70,000 decimal places of pi. Mr. Rajeev was blindfolded during this whole process, at it took him nearly 10 hours to complete his recital!
• Surprisingly, Pi has been a part of Egyptian mythology as well. The principle of Pi was used to construct the Pyramids of Ghiza! The perimeter of the base and the pyramid’s vertical height have the same relationship as the circumference and diameter of the circle. These pyramids are mesmerizing and one of the seven wonders of the world!
• Physicist Larry Shaw is known as the Prince of Pi!
• There are Math geeks literally everywhere. There even exists a language of Pi known as the Pi-lish language. In this dialect, each word has a number of alphabets corresponding to the digits of Pi. This language became so famous that software engineer Michael Keith wrote a book in this language. The book is called “Not A Wake.”
• The calculation of Pi is used as a stress test for computers!
• Ludolph Van Ceulen, a Dutch-German scientist, spent most of his life calculating the value of Pi. He found the value of Pi up to 36 places, which were later engraved in his tombstone.
• The value of Pie is infinite, but it does not possess the sequence 124356. The absence of these sequences in the first million digits of this number definitely makes it unique.
• Some mathematicians tend to believe that circle has an infinite number of corners rather than saying it has none! This is equivalent to infinite digits of constant Pi.
• Some famous scientists have a deep connection to Pi Day. Albert Einstein’s birthday is on the same day. Stephen Hawking died on the 15th of March in 2018.

History Of National Pi Day:

Pi is celebrated on this day, as the date format of 14th March is 3 14, which are Pi’s first digits. Various other days follow the celebration of this day like Pi Approximation Day or Tau Day. Pi is the most studied number in the history of mathematics. It is a number and constant that is still a mystery and a fascination with a lot of scientists and math geeks around the world! It is an irrational number and very vital for the study of mathematics, physics, and astronomy!