Pi Day 2023: Date, History, Facts, Activities

Pi Day is on March 14, and any day that incorporates enjoyment, education, and pie is worthy of celebration. Pi, also known as the Greek letter, is a constant used in mathematics that represents the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter, which is approximately 3.14….15…9265359… (and so on). In addition, March 14 is Albert Einstein’s birthday, making it an absolute delight for mathematicians.

The background of Pi Day

To learn about pi, we must travel back in time several thousand years and study this enigmatic number. Archimedes of Syracuse (287–212 BC), one of the foremost ancient mathematicians, was the first to calculate the value of pi.

However, it was first christened with the Greek letter as its name when William Oughtred referred to it as such in his works dating back to 1647; the scientific community later adopted the symbol when Leonhard Euler used it in 1737.

But how did Pi Day become a national phenomenon? This requires a trip to the Exploratorium in San Francisco in 1988, where physicist Larry Shaw conceived of it.

Shaw organised a special day to bring the Exploratorium staff closer together by associating March 14 with the first digits of pi (3.14). He offered fruit pastries and tea to everyone beginning at 1:59 p.m., the next three digits of the value. A few years later, after Larry’s daughter Sara pointed out that the special date was also Albert Einstein’s birthday, they began commemorating the life of the renowned scientist.

It didn’t take long for the concept to grow exponentially, reaching its zenith on March 12, 2009, when the United States Congress declared it a national holiday.

Now commemorated by math nerds around the circumference of the globe, Pi Day has become a cultural phenomenon, with many locations participating in activities, antics, observations, and eating as much pie as possible.

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PI DAY ACTIVITIES

Relish pie, naturally.

Pi is a homophone of pie; however, the two words are spelled differently and have distinct meanings. Celebrate Pi Day by consuming many pies! Pizza, cherry, apple, you name it!

Host a buffet gathering.

Everyone enjoys bragging about their family’s pie recipe. Everyone will be inclined to bring their beloved pie to Pi Day if it is a potluck, whether it is a pizza pie, a pot pie, a savoury pie, or a sweet pie. Create a playlist with songs such as “I Like Pie, I Like Cake” and “American Pie.”

Try creating a new pie

Have you ever attempted to bake a pie? Now is your opportunity to bake your own. Not interested in sweets? There are a variety of delectable pie recipes available so that everyone can enjoy the warm buttery flakiness of a freshly baked pie.

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5 FACTS ABOUT PI

Rajveer Meena holds the record for the most pi decimal digits memorised, with 70,000.

Computing pi is analogous to a computer’s “digital cardiogram.”

Consequently, if you are the intellectual and visionary type, you too can scent like pi.

Pi is also known as “the constant of Archimedes” and “Ludolph’s number.”

Spock foils the malevolent computer in the Star Trek episode “Wolf in the Fold” by instructing it to calculate the value of pi.

PI DAY DATES