OK, we’ve almost made it through the week \u2014 on to a happier topic….<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Today is Pi Day \u2014 a holiday celebrated every year on March 14. If you\u2019ve been using Pi Day as an excuse to eat pie, I\u2019m sorry to tell you that you\u2019re doing it wrong. This special day was founded in 1988 by Physicist Larry Shaw and has become an international holiday celebrated all around the world in countries that follow the month\/day date format. The digits in the date, March 14 or 3\/14 are the first three digits of \u220f (3.14)
And if you’r really into pi, there are other days during the year that you can celebrate:
March 4 \u2014 this day marks the passing of 14% of the 3rd month of the year.
April 5 \u2014 by this day, 3.14 months of the year have passed.
November 10 \u2014 the 314th day of the year (this would be November 9 in leap years.)
And then there’s alway July 22 \u2014 which would be Pi Approximation Day. This date, when written in the day\/month format \u2014 22\/7 \u2014 corresponds to the fraction (22\/7) that is used to depict pi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So let\u2019s talk about Pi\u2026.
The symbol for Pi has been in use for over 250 years. The symbol was introduced by Williams Jones, and Anglo-Welsh philologist (someone who studies language) in 1706 and made popular by the mathematician Leonhard Euler.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pi wasn\u2019t alway known as pi. Before 1706, people referred the number we know as pi as \u201cthe quantity which when the diameter is multiplied by it, yields the circumference.\u201d Obviously, people got tired of using that many words whenever they wanted to talk about pi. So good for William Jones for coming to our rescue. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some people believe that tau (which amounts to 2\u220f) is better suited to circle calculations. You can multiply ta with the radius of\u00a0 circle to to calculate its circumference more intuitively. Tau\/4 also represents the angle of a quarter of a circle. And \u2014 we can celebrate Tau Day on June 28.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But today is Pi Day \u2014 a day we can all use after the week we\u2019ve had \u2014 happy Pi Day.
\u2014 30 \u2014<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
OK, we’ve almost made it through the week \u2014 on to a happier topic…. Today is Pi Day \u2014 a holiday celebrated every year on March 14. If you\u2019ve been using Pi Day as an excuse to eat pie, I\u2019m … Continue reading