A Quick Overview of Pi Day by Data Untangled

Pi day is great. It’s held every year on March 14. It’s not just a chocolate holiday. I’m not sure that chocolate is even served on Pi day? But pie is. Pi day celebrates the number pi. This is an irrational number that while is commonly represented by the value 3.14 in every day calculations really has an infinite number of decimal places with no known pattern to the numbers to the right of the decimal place. In mathematics departments all over the world people celebrate this day. I’ve seen pi reciting competitions where people will the number pi to as many decimal places as possible by memory; I have seen “hit your professor in the face with pie” fundraisers; seminars and talks on the number pi and so many other activities have surfaced over the years celebrating the number pi and bringing more positive attention to mathematics. My favourite day and should definitely be a holiday. There are no religious connections, no cultural connections, no political or country specific connections that the number pi has so it can be celebrated by the entire world at the same time. There are too many references for the number pi to list them all so I’ve included a few.

References:

Pi Day, URL: http://www.piday.org/
Pi Day March 14, 2018, Exploratorium, URL: https://www.exploratorium.edu/pi
25 Best Ways to Celebrate National Pi Day, Holidappy.com, URL: https://holidappy.com/holidays/25-Best-Ways-to-Celebrate-Pi-Day-314
This is how the number 3.14 got the name Pi, Waxman, O.B., March 2017, time.com, URL: http://time.com/4699479/pi-day-2017-history-origins/

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Lani Haque

I enjoy learning and sharing that knowledge.Sharing has been in many forms over the years, as a teaching assistant, university lecturer, Pilates instructor, math tutor and just sharing with friends and family.Throughout, summarizing what I have learnt in words has always been there and continues to through blog posts, articles, video and the ever growing forms of content out there!