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March 14, 2014

It's National Pi Day. Have a Slice!

a_aa_piday.jpg

By measuring circular objects, it has always turned out that a circle is a little more than 3 times its width around.
In the Old Testament of the Bible (1 Kings 7:23), a circular pool is referred to as being 30 cubits around, and 10 cubits across. The mathematician Archimedes used polygons with many sides to approximate circles and determined that Pi was approximately 22/7. The symbol (Greek letter “π”) was first used in 1706 by William Jones. A ‘p’ was chosen for ‘perimeter’ of circles, and the use of π became popular after it was adopted by the Swiss mathematician Leonhard Euler in 1737. In recent years, Pi has been calculated to over one trillion digits past its decimal. Only 39 digits past the decimal are needed to accurately calculate the spherical volume of our entire universe, but because of Pi’s infinite & patternless nature, it’s a fun challenge to memorize, and to computationally calculate more and more digits. Pi Day キ Celebrate Mathematics on March 14th

Posted by gerardvanderleun at March 14, 2014 12:23 PM. This is an entry on the sideblog of American Digest: Check it out.

Your Say

The "what" of a circle is a little more than 3 times its width around….. just saying'...

Posted by: Jack at March 14, 2014 12:56 PM

I been to high school, you can't fool me.

Pie are square.

Posted by: Rob De Witt at March 14, 2014 3:55 PM

My math major son reminded me that not only is today Pi Day, but all month long, this is Pi Month.

Posted by: azlibertarian at March 14, 2014 4:26 PM

Uh, Jack? That is based on circumferential evidence.

Posted by: chasmatic at March 14, 2014 10:44 PM

Nice pun Chasmatic. X gets the square, the missing word in the sentence is Area. Love the way the baker included the numeric reference to Pi around the edge of the pie.

Wonder what that thing tasted like.

Posted by: Jack at March 15, 2014 7:47 AM

I mean 'circumference". Two more cups of coffee and I'll be fine. I swear.

Posted by: Jack at March 15, 2014 7:52 AM

Awright, Jack, stop beating around it. We might be diametrically opposed but barring any tangential evidence I'll do a 360° turn and radius your arc. It seems I can't corner you. Remember a spinning wheel gathers no wool.

Posted by: chasmatic at March 15, 2014 8:55 AM

Wait two years and Pi day carries out to 4 places.
3-14-16

Posted by: Vermont Woodchuck at March 15, 2014 12:52 PM

One year. 3.14159 (and so on.)

Posted by: B. Durbin at March 16, 2014 4:34 PM

I had an old "Believe It or Not" that had a page's worth of Pi. I memorized as far as 3.141592653589793 and now I wish I had that space available for something meaningful. Like, for instance, where I left my keys.

Posted by: Jason in KT at March 18, 2014 11:16 AM

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