3(.14) Things to Do on Pi Day
What do you get when you take the moon's circumference and divide it by its diameter? A moon pi. Okay, I'll stop. Let's talk about Pi Day. What are your plans?
The value of pi (pronounced "pie") was first accurately approximated by one of the greatest mathematicians, Archimedes of Syracuse (yes, the guy in your Physics book who jumped out of the bathing tub and ran down the streets naked screaming "Eureka!"). The constant has been studied by humans for over 4000 years with the Babylonians and the ancient Egyptians being one of the earliest to do so. It was later in 1706 when William Jones baptized the value as the 16th Greek letter, π.
However, Pi Day would not have ended up as part of pop culture if it weren't for physicist Lawrence N Shaw (a.k.a Prince of π). In 1988, Shaw noticed the link between March 14 and the first 3 digits of pi while working at Exploratorium, a museum of science, technology, and arts museum in San Francisco. Cue: the date format is 3/14 (mm/dd). A year later, the museum announced the day as a holiday and since then the celebration included serving pies at 1:59 PM (the next three digits that follow), pi shrines and more. Pi Day is now celebrated as an international holiday. Wow.
Interestingly, March 14 is Albert Einstein's birthday. Less commonly known, the day also coincides with the birthdays of Eugene Cernan, the last man on the moon; Giovanni Schiaparelli, an astronomer; and Frank Borman, commander of Apollo 8.
Other than the fact that there are no zeroes in the first 31 digits of pi and the six consecutive 9's at position 763 is called the Feynman point, here are three fun things to try on this day.
Find our Pi Day: The pi is known to contain a random series of numbers following the decimal point. But who'd known it also contains birthdays. Enter your date of birth and see how many digits it takes to get there. Find your pi day at http://mypiday.com
If you think deeper, you could make this number a little more special. Use the number in passcodes. End the struggle of meaningless numbers and boring birthdates.
Bead a pi-inspired jewelry: Break out of the trend of patterns and repeats of colours. Bead a bracelet with the digits of pi. Assign a fixed colour to each digit from 0 to 9 and carry on. Perhaps not forever? This could be the ultimate gift for Math nerds.
Get to know pi: Pi is irrational (proved by Johann Lambert in 1761). Pi is also transcendental (proved by Ferdinand Lindemann in 1882). If anything, the history and magnificence of pi is somewhat dying in recent times. Have a go at this watchlist especially curated for pi fans.
- How pi can be used to estimate the size of the universe - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FpyrF_Ci2TQ
- Calculating the value of pi with edible pies - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNiRzZ66YN0
- Ways pi can explain practically everything - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMInC0Dk9l0
- Going down the rabbit hole with pi, primes and complex numbers - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NaL_Cb42WyY
References
1. Pi day (n.d). Top 25 most interesting pi facts
2. Reader's Digest (March 11, 2021). 21 fascinating facts behind the mystery of pi.
3. History Today (July 7, 2009). The man who invented pi.
4. Exploratorium (n.d). A slice of pi (π) day history.
Hiya loves food that you hate by norm – broccoli, pineapple pizza and Bounty bars. Find her at hiyaislam.11@gmail.com