Pi

Pi Pie, created at Delft University of
Technology, applied physics,
seismics and acoustics

Pi, the mathematical constant not the delicious desert, is the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter.  It is an irrational number, which is a number that cannot be expressed as a simple fraction, or as such doesn’t settle into a repeating pattern or in fact end.

For most scientific applications 40 digits or less are accurate enough, but some people just like breaking records. In 2011, Alexander J. Yee and Shigeru Kondo calculated 10 trillion digits taking just little over a year to do so, on a desktop computer.  As of now the last know digit of Pi is a 5.  On the other hand, the record for the most number of digits memorized goes to Lu Chao of China who recited 67,890 digits accurately in 24 hours and 4 minutes on November 20th 2005.

The day March 14 is sometimes referred to as Pi day as March is the third month, thus 3/14.  It is celebrated by math jokes and eating various foods that start with “Pi” such as Pineapple, Pine Nuts, Pizza, and of course Pie.  Check out what’s going on in your area when it next rolls around.