Maths enthusiasts across the world hold fun events on this day to mark the celebrations. They also eat pie as part of the celebrations due to the words being homophones in English (Pi and Pie) and circular shape.
The day was recognised in 1988 by physicist Larry Shaw as he organised a large-scale celebration at the San Francisco Exploratorium in the United States. In 2019, Unesco’s 40th General Conference decided to observe Pi Day as the International Day of Mathematics.
International Day of Mathematics observance is led by the International Mathematical Union, whose theme in 2021 is Mathematics for a Better World.
For people who follow the month/date format, March 14 represents the value of Pi. March is the third month of the year, which is also the initial number of the value. The following number is 14, hence the March 14 date. Maths enthusiasts across the world hold fun events on this day to mark the celebrations. They also eat pie as part of the celebrations due to the words being homophones in English (Pi and Pie) and circular shape.
Here are some more fun facts about Pi:
1) Pi is an irrational number. If calculated the number value can go on forever.
2) We can never know the accurate circumference of a circle as the exact value of Pi can also never be calculated.
3) Pi Day also coincides with the birth anniversary of scientist Albert Einstein. Widely renowned theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking died on this day in 2018.
4) Mathematician Isaac Newton, who is also the father of calculus, calculated the value of Pi to at least 16 decimal places.
5) There is an entire language made from Pi. In 2010, software engineer Michael Keith published a book names ‘Not a Wake’ in Pi language.
There’s also a Pi Approximation Day, observed on 22 July (22/7 in day/month format), since the fraction 22⁄7 is a common approximation of p, accurate to two decimal places. And let’s not forget Two Pi Day, also known as Tau Dayfor the mathematical constant, observed on June 28 (6/28 in month/day format).
At the Royal Institution of Australia (RiAus), we’re celebrating the day by launching the Cosmos Pi-ku 2021 competition. Pay attention now.
To enter, you need to write a Pi-ku: that’s kind of like a haiku, only with more syllables.
A haiku in English is generally accepted to be a poem of three lines and 17 syllables arranged in a 5–7–5 pattern.
A Pi-ku (for our purposes) is a poem of six lines and 23 syllables arranged in a 3–1–4–1–5–9 pattern (Pi to five decimal places: 3.14159).
