Pi Day: Why Do We Celebrate A Mathematical Constant?

So what's all this talk about Pi?

Well, it's national Pi Day, a day to celebrate the mathematical ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter which always equals 3.14 and is represented by the 16th letter of the Greek alphabet ("π").  But, to make things simple, it's often written "pi."

So why celebrate the mathematical constant of pi?

Why not?

For geeks and math whizzes, Pi Day, which falls on 3/14, is a holiday to have fun with math, an excuse to eat actual pie and a day to commemorate world renown genius Albert Einstein who was born on March 14, 1879.

It's also a complicated, but fun way to think about a circle.  Despite the size of circle, the ratio is always 22/7 or, in decimal form, 3.1415926....  However, the decimal never ends which makes it is an irrational number. To date, pi has been calculated to 10 trillion digits past the decimal point.

According to PiDay.org, the number's "infinite nature makes it a fun challenge to memorize, and to computationally calculate more and more digits."

"Everything today that's made that is round or requires a calculation involving a circle, sphere or curved surface involves the use of pi," said Tom Fernsler, of the Math Science Educational Resource Center at the University of Delaware to USA Today.

"Every circle regardless of size contains precisely that ratio," said Fernsler. "If there is any other ratio calculated other than 22/7 for the spherical entity you are measuring, then it's not a circle."

You can have a good time enjoying Pi Day as long as your definition of fun includes memorizing and reciting pi out to thousands of decimal places.