Hurrah for 3.14159265358979… Day!
March 12, 2010 — Cory Hatfield, Public Relations Associate
This March 14 marks the 22nd annual Pi Day. You can learn a lot about pi on MathWorld, Wolfram|Alpha, The Wolfram Functions Site, and the Wolfram Demonstrations Project. And since pi is a built-in Mathematica symbol, you can find more information in the Mathematica Documentation Center.
I remember my first Pi Day celebration—in the fourth grade. My teacher, Mr. Thompson, had our entire class cut construction paper strips and write numbers on each piece of paper. The end result was Northview Elementary School’s largest paper chain, with over 300 of the constant’s numerals.
Pi Day activities aren’t limited to grade school “pi chains.” Pi fans of any age can honor Pi Day in any number of ways, including through poems and songs. I stumbled across a few websites that feature many forms of Pi Day poetry. For example, the piaphrase: “Phrases or sentences in which the number of characters in each word follows the digits in the sequence of pi.” Scrolling down the page further, I found another form of poetry, the piaku: “Poetry in which the number of syllables in each sentence corresponds to the consecutive digits of pi.”
The fun doesn’t just stop there; many websites focus on Pi Day activities and celebration ideas. I’m thinking that pizza pi(e) sounds like the best way for me to celebrate Pi Day! If none of these activities are up your alley, feel free to browse the Wolfram Demonstrations Project for over 250 Demonstrations relating to pi.
Whether your Pi Day celebration begins on March 14 at 1:59pm or March 14 at 1:59:26pm, Wolfram Research hopes you enjoy the day. For another slice of pi, check out Ed Pegg Jr’s earlier Pi Day blog post.