Everyone’s Favorite Irrational Number, Pi

HAPPY π DAY!

Happy Pi Day everyone! March 14 or 3/14 is when we celebrate all things pi! Most celebrate with pizza pie, or a piece of pie, but we are here to celebrate math and science on the blog!

What is π

Pi is an irrational number and the mathematical symbol is π..

We can calculate pi by dividing the circumference (C) of a circle by its diameter (D).
C/D = π

Which means that Pi is the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter. Go ahead and try it! This will work for any sized circle!

We can also manipulate this equation in many ways, for instance the diameter of a circle times Pi equals the circle’s circumference.
D × π = C

Pi is considered irrational because it cannot be expressed as a simple fraction. In fact, pi goes on infinitely!

π = 3.1415926535897932384626433832795028841971…….. whew I’m already tired and it goes on literally forever!!

In fact, NASA reported that in 2021, a supercomputer was able to calculate pi out to 62 trillion digits! That is a big piece of pi!

History of Pi

Pi has been around for a long time; in fact, the earliest known approximations of pi date back to 1650 BC in Egypt! It wasn’t until 1737 that the symbol π was popularized by Leonhard Euler.

Weather & Pi

As a meteorologist, pi is used in many mathematical equations to help us forecast the weather! Earth is a sphere, essentially a 3D circle!

So, pi is used in the many complex equations and computations that produce computer weather forecast models, such as the NAM, GFS, and the Euro.

Why is Pi Day celebrated on March 14

Now you know why Pi Day is important to me personally, but you may ask, how did it become such a celebrated day? It has a fascinating history that is tied to a science museum! (We all know how much science centers and museums mean to me!)

Larry Shaw, a physicist who worked at the San Francisco Exploratorium, came up with Pi Day to celebrate on March 14th (3.14) each year. He started this tradition back in 1988! I think it’s so fun that the tradition continues today. In fact, you should check out the Exploratoriumwebsite; they have a lot of cool Pi Day activities to try out at home!

Then, in 2009, the House of Representatives in Congress passed a resolution acknowledging March 14th as National Pi Day!

How do you plan on celebrating Pi Day? I think a pizza pie is in order for us tonight! I’ll just make sure to measure the circumference and diameter first to calculate pi before we dig in!

(Joke: Why should you never talk to Pi? Because they’ll go on forever!)

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