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Before I launch into the wonders of pi (π), let me forewarn you that I am a math geek. I was on the math team in high school, received a math award and went to MIT. But if you bear with me, maybe you too can see the magic of pi.
First of all, March 14 is Pi day because the first three digits of pi are 3.14 or March 14. So geeks around the world celebrate the irrational, transcendental number that is pi. It also is Einstein’s birthday, born on March 14, 1879. And what exactly is pi? It’s the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter. Already lost? Here’s what it is in English. Let’s put a big circle on the ground that you can walk across. Say it takes you 10 steps to walk from one side of the circle to the other, taking the longest straight path. If you were to walk along the edge of the circle, how many steps would it take? Exactly 10 steps multiplied pi, which is approximately 31.4 steps. And if you want to figure out the area of the circle, you can take half your 10 steps, square it, and multiply it by pi. Isn’t pi a cool magic number?
Here’s a wonderful pictorial representation of pi from Wikipedia.
In the last few years, pi had taken on a special meaning for me. Five years ago, a dear friend of mine who is a scientist suffered a traumatic brain injury in a car accident. She was in a coma for several months and during recovery, one of her first memories had to do with pi. She felt that she was being held in the rehabilitation center against her will. They were giving her medication, but she was sure that they were giving her the wrong dosage because she is a relatively small person. If only she could calculate the volume of her body, then she could prove to them that they were incorrectly medicating her. She could remember that volume of a cylinder was πr²L but she couldn’t remember the value of pi.
A tech writer friend came to visit her and she desperately asked her what the value of pi was. The tech writer shrugged and said that she didn’t know. My friend was flabbergasted that she didn’t know the value of pi. How could this person who didn’t know the value of pi get to walk right out of there at the end of the day? As if the only criteria for staying in a rehabilitation center was whether or not you knew the value of pi.
Months later after my friend made a remarkable recovery, we would joke about pi all the time. For years I would get her pi themed gifts. Like this pi dish from Signals. Which serves double duty as a pie plate (har har).
But since you can’t carry a pi dish around to remember the digits if pi, this shirt from ThinkGeek comes in handy.
If you just want to be geek chic, these earrings from Scienceteecher will certainly turn heads on Pi day.
For guys, there are these pi symbol ties from Amazon.
Or the men’s PI fragrance by Givenchy Eau de Toilette from Target.
And don’t forget these pi symbol ice cubes from ThinkGeek for your next Pi day party.
Happy Pi day everyone!
Contributing editor Angela blogs about her family of geeks at mommy bytes.
