Here is a link to the official Pi Day website: http://www.piday.org
Pi Day started in 1988 at the San Francisco Exploratorium by a physicist that works there. Now Pi Day is embraced by many math teachers, math enthusiasts, and nerds alike. March 14th was picked because the number representing the month of March is 3 and the 14th day of said month is represented by the number 14 (did you see what I did there?) The number Pi is often represented by the two decimal precision number of 3.14. In the United States we write our dates Month/Day/Year for some reason where most of the world writes their dates Day/Month/Year. We are special I guess. So when you write out the date for March 14th, it looks like this:
3/14
Which looks a lot like 3.14.
That’s how we get Pi Day. Pi Day is one of my favorite days of the year. I think I have blogged on it every year for the past several years (at least two maybe three-I’m too lazy to check right now). I love numbers. I use them all of the time. I love Pi. It is a fun number. Often times when I think of Pi or any other irrational number I think of the Star Trek episode (from the original series) where the Starship Enterprise computer has taken control of the ship and Kirk and crew need to distract the computer somehow. How do you distract a computer you ask? Well Mr. Spock came up with the idea to have the computer calculate Pi to the exact decimal. So he did. And since there is no exact decimal for Pi since it keeps repeating and repeating and repeating (thus it’s an irrational number) the computer becomes bogged down try to accomplish this un-accomplishable feat and Kirk can save the day. Which he does.
The moral of this story is that if you are ever attacked by a self-aware super computer ask it to calculate Pi to the exact decimal and you can smite your foe!
Today I will celebrate Pi Day by eating Pie. Another good reason to love Pi Day. It has become a family tradition.
What is the number Pi? The number Pi is the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter. What’s so cool about this is that it is true for every circle in the world that has ever existed. The Pi Day website has a great page discussing what Pi is and some of its uses. http://www.piday.org/learn-about-pi/
If you drive a car you use Pi every time you are operating the vehicle. The speedometer uses Pi to calculate your speed. Driving under the allotted speed limit keeps you out of jail. Therefore Pi keeps you from being arrested. See how important Pi is?
It’s Pi Day Pi Day Everyone Knows It’s Pi Day!
If you are on twitter (I am twitter.com/bcbenton) use this hashtag for Pi Day information
#piday
Happy Pi Day.
No comments:
Post a Comment