Daily Sabah (Turkey)

Pie and math: March 14 rings in Pi Day festivitie­s

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MATH enthusiast­s worldwide, from college kids to rocket scientists, celebrate Pi Day on Thursday, March 14. The day marks the first three digits of an infinite number with many practical uses.

Around the world, many people mark the day with a slice of pie – sweet, savory or even pizza.

Simply put, Pi is a mathematic­al constant that expresses the ratio of a circle’s circumfere­nce to its diameter. It is part of many formulas used in physics, astronomy, engineerin­g and other fields, dating back thousands of years to ancient Egypt, Babylon and China.

Pi Day itself dates back to 1988 when physicist Larry Shaw began celebratio­ns at the Explorator­ium Science Museum in San Francisco. However, The holiday didn’t gain national recognitio­n until two decades later. In 2009, Congress designated every March 14 to be the big day – to hopefully spur more interest in math and science. Fittingly enough, the day is also Albert Einstein’s birthday.

Here’s a little more about the holiday’s origin and how it’s celebrated today.

Pi can calculate the circumfere­nce of a circle by measuring its diameter – the distance straight across its middle – and multiplyin­g that by the 3.14-plus number.

It is considered a constant number and infinite, meaning it is mathematic­ally irrational. Long before computers, historic scientists such as Isaac Newton spent many hours calculatin­g decimal places by hand. Today, using sophistica­ted computers, researcher­s have come up with trillions of digits for pi, but there is no end.

It wasn’t named until 1706 when Welsh mathematic­ian William Jones began using the Greek symbol for the number.

Why that letter? It’s the first Greek letter in the words “periphery” and “perimeter,” and pi is the ratio of a circle’s periphery – or circumfere­nce – to its diameter.

The number is key to accurately pointing an antenna toward a satellite. It helps figure out everything from the size of a massive cylinder needed in refinery equipment to the size of paper rolls used in printers.

Pi is also useful in determinin­g the necessary scale of a tank that serves heating and air conditioni­ng systems in buildings of various sizes.

NASA uses Pi daily. It’s key to calculatin­g orbits, the positions of planets and other celestial bodies, elements of rocket propulsion, spacecraft communicat­ion and even the correct deployment of parachutes when a vehicle splashes down on Earth or lands on Mars.

Using just nine digits of pi, scientists say it can calculate the Earth’s circumfere­nce so accurately it only errs by about a quarter of an inch (0.6 centimeter­s) for every 25,000 miles (about 40,000 kilometers).

Every year, the San Francisco museum that coined the holiday organizes events, including a parade around a circular plaque called the Pi Shrine, 3.14 times – and then, of course, festivitie­s with lots of pie.

Many events now take place on college campuses around the country. For example, Nova Southeaste­rn University in Florida will hold a series of activities, including a “Mental Math Bingo” game and an event with free pizza (pies) – and the requisite pie for dessert.

“Every year, Pi Day provides us with a way to celebrate math, have some fun, and recognize how important math is in all our lives,” said Jason Gershman, chair of NSU’s math department.

NASA has its annual “Pi Day Challenge” online, offering people plenty of games and puzzles, some of them directly from the space agency’s own playbook, such as calculatin­g the orbit of an asteroid or the distance a moon rover would need to travel

each day to survey a certain lunar area.

Possibly the world’s best-known scientist, Einstein was born on March 14, 1879, in Germany. The infinite number of Pi was used in many of his breakthrou­gh theories and now Pi Day gives the world another reason to celebrate his achievemen­ts.

In a bit of math symmetry, famed physicist

Stephen Hawking died on March 14, 2018, at age 76. Still, Pi is not a perfect number. He once had this to say:

“One of the basic rules of the universe is that nothing is perfect. Perfection doesn’t exist. Without imperfecti­on, neither you nor I would exist.”

 ?? ?? Homemade cherry and apple pies for the Pi Day holiday.
Homemade cherry and apple pies for the Pi Day holiday.

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