Friday, March 14, 2008

Happy Pi Day

Pi Day and Pi Approximation Day are two holidays held to celebrate the mathematical constant π (pi). Pi Day is observed on March 14 (3/14 in American date format), due to π being equal to roughly 3.14. Sometimes it is celebrated on March 14 at 1:59 p.m. (commonly known as Pi Minute). If π is truncated to seven decimal places, it becomes 3.1415926, making March 14 at 1:59:26 p.m., Pi Second (or sometimes March 14, 1592 at 6:53:58 a.m.). Pi Approximation Day may be observed on any of several dates, most often July 22 (22/7 (European date format) is a popular approximation of π). March 14 also happens to be Albert Einstein's birthday.
Update: PI KNOWS ALL:
  • My birthday (8/13/44) begins 41,709 places after the decimal in pi
  • Jack's (7/12/39) begins 78,874 places after the decimal in pi
  • Pat's (10/10/47) begins 944,680 places after the decimal in pi
  • (which I guess means I'm not the middle child any more)
  • Mary Ellen's (9/18/47) begins 75,309 places after the decimal in pi
  • Cassie's (12/28/74) begins 367,828 places after the decimal in pi
  • (I've got to find out when Roger's birthday is)
  • Abby's (02/04/02) begins 64,170 places after the decimal in pi (or, if her birthday is written 2/4/2, as it should be, it begins in the 1,108th place after the decimal. Which put her at the top of the list. Which is how it should be.)
Bonus update: Our 7-digit phone number begins in the 2,699,557th place after the decimal, and my 7-digit cell phone number begins in the 9,936,013th place. The 7-digit number for the White House (area code 202) begins in the 3,193,808th place.

Extra special bonus update: Pi, of course, is one of the best known constants in all of science. Another, especially important to Einstein, whose birthday is on Pi Day, is the speed of light (299792 Km / sec). 299792 begins in the 427,466th place after the decimal in pi.

Source for all the updates: http://www.angio.net/pi/bigpi.cgi

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Damn......I knew that I was forgetting something.


Jack