March 14, 2011
Six Ways to Celebrate Pi Day
A chocolate peanut butter pie for Pi Day (photo, and pie, by Sarah Zielinski)
Today is March 14, or 3.14, the day we celebrate the mathematical constant pi (π). Pi, the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter, is an irrational number, meaning that it can’t be expressed as a simple fraction of two integers. It is also a transcendental number, which means it is not algebraic. The celebrated 3.14 is just the beginning of pi—it continues into infinity, and that may be one of the reasons people find it so fascinating. So in honor of Pi Day, here are some suggestions for how to celebrate:
1 ) Read about the long history of pi.
2 ) Memorize as many digits of pi as you can (here’s pi to a million digits). A Japanese man in 2005 memorized pi to 83,431 digits.
3 ) See how far you can calculate pi. Computer programmer Fabrice Bellard calculated pi to 2.7 trillion digits using his home computer.
4 ) Watch the movie Pi, a 1998 thriller about a paranoid mathematician.
5 ) Make a pi-themed pie (I went for chocolate peanut butter pie, but any flavor is appropriate).
6 ) Celebrate with music: Learn the song, “Pi, Pi, Mathematical Pi,” set to the tune of “American Pie”; listen to the Pi Rap; or sing Pi Day carols.
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Pi day is Einstein’s birthday!!!
And mine!!
Here’s the recipe for today’s pie: http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/decadent-peanut-butter-pie/Detail.aspx
You can also vote for your favorite mathematical pie on Instructables.com http://www.instructables.com/contest/piday2013/
(Shameless plug: mine is the “Department of Redundancy Department: Raspberry Pi Raspberry Pie” vote early and often!)