Today is Pi day! What is
special about this particular π day is that arranging the date and time in a
specific format at a specific time today yields:
(Month) . (day) (shortened year) (hour)
(minute) (second)
3 . 14 15 9 26 53
These are the first 9 digits of
the famous number, Pi (π). I am publishing this blog post at 9:26. I also
captured this moment on my clock, that only appears once every 100 years:
So, what is Pi, and how is it
important in mathematics?
Pi (so far as we know) was
first discovered by the ancient Greek mathematician, Archimedes. Pi is defined
as being the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter. It is an
irrational number, meaning its digits go on forever. The first 20 are (I have
them memorized): 3.14159265358979323846. In fact, between the seconds 53 and
54, there is a precise instant in which the date and time correspond exactly to
all of the digits of pi.
Pi day is an official holiday,
and has been observed in many ways, including baking circular pastries and pies, like this one that Mom made:
Have a wonderful π day!
My son wanted us to celebrate at exactly 9:26:53, so we all stayed up and ate apple pie at the once in a lifetime 10-digit mark.
ReplyDeletePie day is kind of boring besides all of the pies that you eat, but pretty good blog.
ReplyDeleteI to noticed that this years Pi day was special. Although I did not celebrate like Mrs. C. Nice blog
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