Today, July 22, is Pi Approximation Day. Another day dedicated to the mathematical constant pi (∏)
I know there seems to be a lot of pi days — people who write their date in month/date format celebrate Pi Day on March 14 (3/14 or 3-14) because the first three digits of the date correspond to the first three digits of pi — 3.14. Those that live in countries that write their dates in the date/month format celebrate today on 22 July or 22/7, and they often refer to it as casual Pi Day. And then there’s the group that argue for the replacement of Pi with Tau and to celebrate Tau Day on June 28 instead of celebrating Pi Day or Pi Approximation Day.
But anyhow, no matter if you’re a mathematician or a baker, pi or pie, today is a good day to celebrate.
In case you’re more of a baker than a math guy, pi denotes the relationship between a circle’s circumference and its diameter and can be expressed by the fraction 22/7 which calculates approximately to 3.14 — thus Pi Approximation Day.
Pi (∏) is the ratio of any circle — amazingly, for all circles of any size, pi will always be the same. It is an “irrational number,” meaning its exact value is, and will always be, unknown.
If math class didn’t make much sense to you in school, or even why it mattered, pi is the answer. It’s one of the things that links math to real-world uses. Because pi is linked to circles, it’s also linked to cycles and things like calculating waves, ebb and flow, ocean tides, electromagnetic waves, etc.
So Pi deserves its day, and it also deserves its approximation day.
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