Happy Pi (π) Day!

Happy π Day!

I bet you did not know that π is the 16th letter in the Greek alphabet! But I am sure that you have heard of pi and its celebration every year on the 14th of March (3-14). Maybe you also remember this from the newly hyped token $pi (but this is for another post:)

Every year on March 14 (3/14), math lovers around the world celebrate Pi Day, which is dedicated to the most famous irrational number: π (pi)!

Have you ever wondered why this number (π) is so important? Why is it still celebrated and continues to fascinates people of all ages around the whole world?

“Probably no symbol in mathematics has evoked as much mystery, romanticism, misconception and human interest as the number pi”

~William L. Schaaf, Nature and History of Pi

📐 Why is Pi So Important?

Pi is the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter.
So what? You may ask.
This ratio always equals to the number 3.14159.... no matter the size of the circle.

What is very impressive is that this number is found everywhere!

Physics, astronomy, nature!

A Brief History of Pi

Pi has been known for thousands of years.
There have been approximations of this number since the ancient Egyptians.

In the words of exploratorium.edu:

Pi (π) has been known for almost 4000 years—but even if we calculated the number of seconds in those 4000 years and calculated π to that number of places, we would still only be approximating its actual value.

The first calculation of π was done by Archimedes of Syracuse (287–212 BC), one of the greatest mathematicians of the ancient world. Archimedes approximated the area of a circle by using the Pythagorean Theorem to find the areas of two regular polygons: the polygon inscribed within the circle and the polygon within which the circle was circumscribed. Since the actual area of the circle lies between the areas of the inscribed and circumscribed polygons, the areas of the polygons gave upper and lower bounds for the area of the circle. Archimedes knew that he had not found the value of π but only an approximation within those limits. In this way, Archimedes showed that π is between 3 1/7 and 3 10/71.

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Over time, mathematicians kept refining its value. With computers, we now know trillions of digits of pi, which by the way never ends!

Cool Facts About Pi

• Pi is irrational. Its decimal digits go on forever and they do not repeat.

• In 2019, a Google employee calculated pi to 31.4 trillion digits

• Some people compete to memorize as many digits of pi as possible. Apparently, the current record is held by Suresh Kumar Sharma, who recited an incredible 70 030 digits of π in 17 hours and 14 minutes. That is an average of just over 1 digit per second. There are also some unofficial records, but whichever is the real record, I am very impressed!

Looking for some fun π activities?

You can find some cool activities here - let me post an easy one here:

You can enter any number and this website will find the sequence!

Lets see with the birthday of hive 20.03.20

I hope that you enjoyed this post and that you have learnt something new! I know I have :)

• Links:
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pi
• https://www.piday.org/learn-about-pi/
• https://www.exploratorium.edu/pi/history-of-pi
• https://news.web.baylor.edu/news/story/2024/magic-and-mystery-p-pi

p.s. my images

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