March 14th: Pi Day

Pi Day (3.14) Pi, the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter. mathematicians assemble to celebrate pi (3.14159 etc.), one of probably dozens or maybe hundreds of such assemblies worldwide at which people sing songs and recite poetry about pi, have pi trivia quizzes, and eat Pie. Some things you might not know about pi.

1. In 2002, a Japanese scientist found 1.24 trillion digits of pi using a powerful computer called the Hitachi SR 8000, breaking all previous records.
2. Computing pi is a stress test for a computer—a kind of “digital cardiogram. In extreme cases it can kill them. In the Star Trek episode Wolf in the Fold, Spock defeats the evil computer by commanding it to compute to the last digit the value of pi.
3. The first 144 digits of pi add up to 666.
4. There are 360 degrees in a circle and the number 360 is at the 359th digit position of pi.
5. People have known about pi for a very long time. One of the earliest known records of pi was written by an Egyptian scribe named Ahmes (c. 1650 B.C.) on what is now known as the Rhind Papyrus.The Rhind Papyrus was the first attempt to calculate pi by “squaring the circle,” ie. to measure the diameter of a circle by building a square inside the circle.
6. To celebrate pi day properly, your party must begin at 1.59pm precisely to make an appropriate 3.14159.
7. Pi day is also Albert Einstein's birthdate.
8. You can find out if the numbers in your birthday appear in the first 200 million digits of pi, and how many times, by visiting this web site. http://www.angio.net/pi/.
9. In the Greek alphabet, π (piwas) is the sixteenth letter. In the English alphabet, p is also the sixteenth letter.
10. If you divide the circumference of a jack-o’-lantern by its diameter, you get Pumpkin Pi. If you divide the circumference of the sun by its diameter, you get Pi in the sky!