News
2015-03-14 11:52:07 UTC
http://www.cnn.com/2015/03/13/living/pi-day-things-to-know-feat/index.html
"A number of things to know about Pi"
Updated 8:56 PM ET, Fri March 13, 2015
(CNN)Pi Day is going to be extra special this year, as 2015 stretches the
symbolic March 14 celebration out a little longer to 3.1415.
And if you mark pi at 9:26.53 in the morning or night, you're just a little
more in line with the celebrated irrational number that never ends. To 31
decimal places, pi is 3.1415926535897932384626433832795.
A few more tidbits about pi and Pi Day:
About pi
Pi is the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter. It's not
equal to the ratio of any two whole numbers, so an approximation -- 22/7 --
is used in many calculations. Pi is essential in architecture and
construction and was used frequently by early astronomers. Pi has been known
for about 4,000 years, but it started to be called by the Greek letter only
in the 1700s.
The origin of Pi Day
Pi Day started 27 years ago at San Francisco's Exploratorium. Physicist
Larry Shaw, who worked in the electronics group at the museum, started
celebrating pi on March 14, 1988, primarily with museum staffers. The
tradition has grown to embrace math enthusiasts from all walks of life.
Celebrations
This year, the Exploratorium is hosting a day-long celebration at its
facility on Pier 15, including a Pi Procession, servings of pie and a pizza
pie dough-tossing event.
Pi Day is also Albert Einstein's birthday. In Princeton, New Jersey, where
Einstein lived for more than two decades, signs of the scientist permeate
the Pi Day festivities, from birthday parties at the Historical Society of
Princeton to an Einstein lookalike contest. Plus the requisite pie-eating,
pie-throwing and pizza pie creation.
For more about pi, visit http://www.piday.org.
CNN's Elizabeth Landau contributed to this report.
---
"War is the health of the State."
--Randolph Bourne (1886-1918)
"A number of things to know about Pi"
Updated 8:56 PM ET, Fri March 13, 2015
(CNN)Pi Day is going to be extra special this year, as 2015 stretches the
symbolic March 14 celebration out a little longer to 3.1415.
And if you mark pi at 9:26.53 in the morning or night, you're just a little
more in line with the celebrated irrational number that never ends. To 31
decimal places, pi is 3.1415926535897932384626433832795.
A few more tidbits about pi and Pi Day:
About pi
Pi is the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter. It's not
equal to the ratio of any two whole numbers, so an approximation -- 22/7 --
is used in many calculations. Pi is essential in architecture and
construction and was used frequently by early astronomers. Pi has been known
for about 4,000 years, but it started to be called by the Greek letter only
in the 1700s.
The origin of Pi Day
Pi Day started 27 years ago at San Francisco's Exploratorium. Physicist
Larry Shaw, who worked in the electronics group at the museum, started
celebrating pi on March 14, 1988, primarily with museum staffers. The
tradition has grown to embrace math enthusiasts from all walks of life.
Celebrations
This year, the Exploratorium is hosting a day-long celebration at its
facility on Pier 15, including a Pi Procession, servings of pie and a pizza
pie dough-tossing event.
Pi Day is also Albert Einstein's birthday. In Princeton, New Jersey, where
Einstein lived for more than two decades, signs of the scientist permeate
the Pi Day festivities, from birthday parties at the Historical Society of
Princeton to an Einstein lookalike contest. Plus the requisite pie-eating,
pie-throwing and pizza pie creation.
For more about pi, visit http://www.piday.org.
CNN's Elizabeth Landau contributed to this report.
---
"War is the health of the State."
--Randolph Bourne (1886-1918)