Are you fond of Mathematics? Well, the question may not please you, and even if you are not a Math genius, but March 14 is here — it's time to celebrate Pi Day! The day observes the mathematical constant π, as its digits 3.14 correspond to today's date. What's more? It is Albert Einstein's birthday! Let us now look at how people celebrate this day and why it is significant for Indians.
How is Pi Day celebrated?
People around the world eat pies to observe this day because Pi and pie are English homophones. The fact that pies are round in shape also counts. Other forms of celebration include pie-eating contests, throwing pies, pi recitation contests in schools and organising discussions involving the significance of π. Additionally, schools, universities and mathematics organisations, with a unique theme each year, aim to promote mathematics education and awareness on this day.
Does India celebrate Pi Day?
Not really. In India, people don't celebrate it in the conventional sense, but Pi day is observed globally. We may not have pie-eating challenges or pi recitation contests, but according to the Guinness Book of World Records, an Indian holds the record for memorising the most digits of Pi till date. In March 2015, Ranveer Meena wore a blindfold and recalled 70,000 decimal places of Pi in a duration of 10 hours. That's something!
How did Pi Day begin?
The celebration of this day was started in the US in 1988 by Larry Shaw, an employee of Exploratorium, which is a museum of Science, Technology and Arts in San Fransisco, California. The museum is described as "a mad scientist's penny arcade, a scientific funhouse, and an experimental laboratory all rolled into one" in a book written on it. Shaw worked as a physicist there, and on March 14, led all the other employees, staff and public marching around one of the museum's circular spaces and then consuming fruit pies.
This is the earliest known celebration of Pi Day. Then In 2009, the United States House of Representatives supported the designation of Pi Day and UNESCO's 40th General Conference designated Pi Day as the International Day of Mathematics in November of that year.
What other fun facts make Pi Day special?
Here's the list:
1. The extraordinary quality of Pi: π is an irrational number, which means its value cannot be properly expressed in a fraction. Though 22/7 is taken to be a rough estimate of its value, its exact value cannot be calculated, as it runs to an infinite number of digits when converted into decimals. All the same, π is a constant.
2. Alternate celebrations: The alternate days on which this day is observed are July 22 (22/7), which is known as Pi Approximation Day and June 28 (6.28, an approximation of 2π), which is known as Two Pi Day or Tau Day.
3. Great discounts: Many pizza and pie places offer amazing discounts, offers and even free products on this day.
4. Historical note: On this day in 2015 at 9:26:53 (AM and PM), all of the first ten digits of Pi (3.141592653) were present in the date and time.
5. If you cannot think of anything to do, you can watch movies on Mathematics to observe this day or why not practice some Math?
