Celebrated each year on March 14th (3.14), Pi Day commemorates the irrational, transcendent, and never-ending ratio that’s used to represent a mathematical constant. This infinite number is crucial when describing circles because no matter how big or small, the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter will always equal to pi.
In 2009, pi day, also written π or 3.14, was declared an official national holiday–one that’s worth celebrating! We’ll help you kick things off with 3 fun facts, 1 joke, and 4 activities that are certain to get you in the Pi Day spirit.
3 Pi Fun Facts
- Some people love pi so much that they decided to create an entire language out of its numbers. Known as “Pi-lish,” the language matches the number of letters in each word to the corresponding digit of pi. The first word has three letters, the second has one, the third has four, and so on. If you’re feeling ambitious, check out the book Not a Wake which was written entirely in Pilish!
- Pi wasn’t always known as pi. Before its naming in the 1700s, people referred to pi as, “the quantity which when the diameter is multiplied by it, yields the circumference”. That’s a mouth full (of pie)!
- The number pi is infinitely long. Interestingly, the sequence 123456 doesn’t appear anywhere in the first million digits, making it even more difficult and unique to memorize.
1 Pi Joke
Q: What do you get when a bunch of sheep stand around in a circle?
A: Shepherd’s pi
4 Pi Day Activities
- Test your knowledge with our pop pi quiz!
- Check out your local Pi Day deals! Whether you love traditional pie or prefer it in the form of a pizza, there are plenty of Pi Day-inspired deals to discover. Whole Foods Bakery is known to offer $3.14 off a fresh-baked pie and select pizzerias advertise their pies for only $3.14. Satisfy your craving while saving some cash!
- Before you indulge in a delicious pie of your choice, make sure to measure it! Pi is the ratio of a circle’s circumference (the distance around it) divided by its diameter (the distance across it).
- See how many pi digits you can recite from memory! Put them to the test here and recite up to 150 digits.
Because we want to help you with any calculations you need to make (not just the circumference of the pecan pie in the break room), check out our Calculators, Apps and Data Analysis Tools. They make your work easy as 3.1415192.
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