Pi Day and Pi Approximation Day are two holidays held to celebrate the mathematical constant π (pi). Pi Day is observed on March 14 (3/14 in American date format), due to π being roughly equal to 3.14. Pi Approximation Day is observed on July 22, due to π being roughly equal to 22/7.
Pi Day is also sometimes celebrated on March 14 at 1:59 p.m. If π is truncated to seven decimal places, it becomes 3.1415926, making March 14 at 1:59:26 p.m., Pi Second (or sometimes March 14, 1592 at 6:53:58 a.m.). March 14 also happens to be Albert Einstein's birthday.
The first Pi Day celebration was held at the San Francisco Exploratorium in 1988, with staff and public marching around one of its circular spaces, and then consuming fruit pies; the museum has since added pizza pies to its Pi Day menu.[1] The founder of Pi Day, the "Prince of Pi", is Larry Shaw,[2] now retired from the Exploratorium, but still helping out with the celebrations. They have also recently added the first Pi Day celebrations in Second Life.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology often mails out its acceptance letters to be delivered to prospective students on Pi Day.[3]
Some also celebrate Pi Approximation Day in addition to Pi Day, which can fall on any of several dates:
- April 26: The Earth has traveled two radians of its orbit by this day (April 25th in leap years); thus the entire orbit divided by the distance traveled equals pi
- July 22: 22/7 in the more common day/month date format, an ancient approximation of pi
- November 10: The 314th day of the year (November 9 in leap years)
- December 21, 1:13 p.m.: The 355th day of the year (December 20 in leap years), celebrated at 1:13 for the Chinese approximation 355/113
On March 14, 2004, Daniel Tammet calculated and recited 22514 decimal digits of pi.[4]
See also
- Mole Day
- Square root day
- List of topics related to pi
- For other holidays celebrated on these days, see March 14 and July 22
References
- ^ Adrian Apollo (March 10, 2007). "A place where learning pi is a piece of cake", The Fresno Bee. Retrieved on 21 March 2007.
- ^ COMMENTS & CURIOSITIES: Infinitely irrational Pi Day Accessed on 2007-03-29.
- ^ McClan, Erin (March 14, 2007). "Pi fans meet March 14 (3.14, get it?)", msnbc.com. Retrieved on 24 January 2008.
- ^ David Letterman show 27.04.2005
External links
- The Exploratorium's Pi Page
- Pi Day in Maine with Dr. Wilson's Memory Elixir
- How to Celebrate Pi Day
- PiDay.org The Official March 14 Website
- Ideas for Teachers for Celebrating Pi Day
- PiDayInternational.org
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