3.14 Reasons to Celebrate Pi Day(π): Math, Pies, and More!

Prabhat Mahato
2 min readNov 27, 2023

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What is Pi (π)?

Pi is also known as (π) in Greek letter and it represents the ratio with the value of 3.14 to a circumference of a circle to its diameter.

If we go back a few years, Archimedes of Syracuse was one of the greatest mathematicians of the ancient era and was the first person who calculated the value of Pi around (287–212 BC).

If you keep calculating (π)’s digit more and more you will find that it will go on forever with any end.

History Behind the Pi Day

Larry Shaw was the man who organized for the first time the celebration for Pi Day at the San Francisco Exploratorium in 1988.

Larry was a physicist and used to work there. By eating fruit pies and marching around the circular area they celebrated Pi Day for the first time and from that time the celebration has continued.

Google prepared a Google Doodle in 2010 it had circular images of google and Pie symbols on it and March 14 was celebrated as ‘Super Pie Day’ in the year 2015.

What is Pi Day (π)?

Pi Day is celebrated annually and is observed on March 14 every year so if we see in the month/ day format 3/14 because 3, 1, 4 are the first three digits of π. The day is celebrated mostly by eating Pie or Pie recitation competitions.

The United States House of Representatives started supporting the action of choosing Pi day in 2009, and in 2019 November Pi day was designated as the International Day of Mathematics by UNESCO’s 40th general conference.

Albert Einstein’s birthday is also on 14th March and he was born in Princeton, New Jersey every year so both occasions are celebrated together and with eating pie and recitation competition Einstein look-alike competition is also held in Princeton.

Alternative dates

There are alternative dates as well for the holiday or related celebrations other than on March 14 which includes:

Pi Approximation Day

This day is observed on 22 July in the day/ month format; it is 22/7 since 22/7 is the fraction which is a common approximation of π. These are the dates from Archimedes and are precise to two decimal places.

Two Pi Day

This day is observed on June 28 in the day/ month format it is 6/28. Two Pi Day is approximated as 6.28 and is also known as Tau Day. 2 π in the Greek letter also known as tau is also a mathematical multiple formula.

Conclusion

So this was all about Pi Day. I hope the information was helpful and fun so, from now on don’t forget to celebrate Pi Day in March.

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Prabhat Mahato
Prabhat Mahato

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