Transcript:
Did you know that this Thursday, March 14 is Pi day? Celebrate by eating some pie! What is Pi day? It was established in 1988 by Larry Shaw who noticed that the mathematical number Pi makes with March 14, 3.14. He decided to order pie for his staff and thus Pi day was born!
What is Pi? If you draw a circle and you want to know the difference between the circumference of the circle and the diameter, the answer will always be pi or 3.14. Pi is also an irrational number, which means that no two natural numbers divided will get you a value of 3.14. The value will never end and the digits after the decimal will continue on and on forever and the numbers don’t have any repeating pattern. This sequence with no repeats is part of the allure for mathematicians trying to find a pattern.
In honor of pi day, here are some neat facts:
– We have known about pi for over 4,000 years. The ancient Babylonians recorded pi in a tablet as 3.125. Over the years, the value of pi became more accurate to its final value of 3.14. It wasn’t until the 1700s that the pi symbol was used.
– Pi day is celebrated on March 14th, but the exact time for celebration is at 1:59 pm to match with the exact number 3.14159
– The Guinness World Record for most digits of pi was accomplished in March 2015 by Rajveer Meena in India. He wore a blindfold and recited 70,000 decimals. This took over 10 hours.
– There is a language for pi called Pilish where the number of letters in a word matches the digits of pi. For example: How I sign, how = 3 I =1 sign = 4 3.14! Many people who memorize pi digits will use this language to help them memorize the numbers.
– Part of celebrating pi day was to cultivate interest and excitement in science and math
– A computers “stress” level can be tested using pi calculation as it tells you the computers activity levels
– Albert Einstein was born on pi day and Stephen Hawkings died on pi day
– Pi is often used in jokes, John evans made a joke “What do you get if you divide the circumference of a jack-o’-lantern by its diameter? Pumpkin π.”
So this Thursday 3.14, go go eat some pie, whether it is a pizza pie, a pecan pie, a key lime pie, or a shepards pie and see how many digits you can memorize!
