Pi Day

Pi (Π) – a difficult concept to understand but central to so many aspects of our lives. It goes on forever and ever and ever ….  truly a number that goes on to infinity.   Each year, we celebrate this math concept with the more tasty homophone – pie!

Since a pie is round and Pi is circumference over diameter, it only makes sense that they would both be celebrated on this day.

Back in 1988, the Exploratorium Museum of Science, Art, and Human Perception in San Francisco launched the first celebration of Pi Day.   In 2009, the US Congress officially recognized the day.  Today, it is celebrated throughout the world by students, educators, scientists, mathematicians–and fans of pie! 

How to Celebrate Pi Day

Pi Day is celebrated by eating just about every kind of pie a person can imagine – fruit pies, chocolate pies, nut pies, and even meat pies! 

Other ways to celebrate include: 

• a Pie Feast – a perfect time to show off your pastry-making skills and have a bake-off with friends or family.
• memorize Pi – see how many digits you can try to memorize of the Pi sequence (you can even use the song that was create to help young math lovers to memorize the first 100 digits…  The Pi Song!)
• visit your local science museum to enjoy some of the events and activities that they likely have planned.
• exchange funny math jokes with friends and family  (take a look at this page for some starting ideas).
• since March 14th is also the birthday for world-reknown scientist, Albert Einstein, why not sing Happy Birthday and explore some fun ways to celebrate the day?
• explore the math concept of Pi to its fullest by reading more about it (start at Exploratorium).