Pi, an important and an interesting constant in the world of mathematics is an irrational number that has applications everywhere around us, not only on this earth but in outer space too. Ever since history, mankind is intrigued by pi and has been trying to find the most approximate value for it. 50,000,000,000,000 digits and still counting. With people both in the past and the present dedicating their lives solely to finding the digits, celebrating a day in honor of that constant, this fad doesn’t seem to end any sooner. Of all the constants, why such an obsession for pi?
William Shanks, an amateur mathematician, spent his entire life calculating the digits of pi manually and calculated 707 places out of which only 527 places were correct since he made a minor error of misplacing two digits while proceeding further. His approximation was the longest until the advent of digital electronic computers, which happened a century later. IBM 7090 which was used to power the Gemini and Mercury missions were used to compute the digits of pi. It took IBM 7090– 8 hours and 43 minutes to reach 100000 digits, which is undoubtedly fast when compared with the manual process, or with a mechanical desk calculator. Computing the digits of pi can also be used as a stress test for computers.
Pilish, a style of writing in which the length of the words matches the corresponding digit of pi. There are prose, poetry, and even books written in that form. One such work is Not A Wake that contains 10,000 words that match with pi’s decimal value. Ever since mathematicians started finding the decimal value of pi, people started memorizing the digits. It was simple earlier when the calculations had to be made in hand. Things started getting high when computers entered the league. A scientist at google calculated 31,415,926,535,897 digits of pi and the official record, for now, is at 70,030 digits held by Suresh Kumar Sharma. Not just reciting the digits, there are several other records made each day.
If you think the craze ends here, it does not. Lovers of pi were overwhelmed and decided to dedicate a day to it, celebrating. Guess when? March 14th (3.14). There are plenty of reasons to pick that day other than it being the first three digits of pi. It was on that same day Albert Einstein was born and Stephen Hawking died, two renowned scientists of the science community. The United States House of Representatives supported the designation in 2009. UNESCO on its 40th General Conference decided to declare Pi Day as the International Day of Mathematics. July 22 is observed as Pi Approximation Day for the common approximation of pi which is accurate to two decimal places. The theme for the International Day of Mathematics or Pi Day 2021 is “Mathematics for a Better World“.
The earliest known official celebration of the pi day was in 1988 at San Francisco Exploratorium Science Museum organized by Larry Shaw. Pi Day in 2015 was celebrated as Super Pi Day as it represents the first 5 digits of pi (3.1415). At 9:26:53 in the same year, it represents the first 10 digits. Pi Day this year, i.e. 31421 (3/14/21) is at 333rd position in Pi. Several events are organized around the world every year to celebrate Pi Day. With Pi Day 2021 approaching, several contests have been organized by various organizations. If you think it is only for the math geeks and nerds, you are wrong! From merch offering clothing at a discounted rate to confectionaries offering savories at special prices (just because pi rhymes with pie), people are celebrating Pi Day however they can.
Read more: “Pi versus Phi, The Magic and The Mystery“
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