Pi is the most recognized mathematical constant in the world. Scholars often consider pi the most important and intriguing number in all of mathematics.
The symbol for pi (π) has been used regularly in its mathematical sense only for the past 250 years. We can never truly measure the circumference or the area of a circle, because we can never truly know the value of pi. Pi is an “irrational number,” meaning its
digits go on forever in a seemingly random sequence. Most people stop 3.14.
So, when the 14th day of the 3rd month (March 14 or 3/14) rolls around, people call it “pi day.”
There is nothing to celebrate, just a math oddity to acknowledge. Feel free to eat an irrational slice of pizza pi, apple pi, cherry pi, pumpkin pi, ice cream pi…
- Scientists in Carl Sagan’s novel Contact are able to unravel enough of pi to find hidden messages from the creators of the human race, allowing humans to access deeper levels of universal awareness.
- In the Star Trek episode “Wolf in the Fold,” Spock foils the evil computer, by commanding it to “compute to last digit the value of pi.”
The Great Pyramid at Giza seems to approximate pi. Egyptologists and followers of mysticism have been fascinated for centuries by the fact that the Great Pyramid at Giza seems to approximate pi. The vertical height of the pyramid has the same relationship to the perimeter of its base as the radius of a circle has to its circumference.
In the Greek alphabet, π was the sixteenth letter. In the English alphabet, pi is also the sixteenth letter.