pi

π -Day

William Jones
William Jones

pi

Pi Day is celebrated on March 14th around the world. Pi the Greek letter π is the symbol used in mathematics to represent a constant – the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter which approximately 3.141592625359. Mathematicians have calculated Pi to over one trillion digits beyond its decimal point.  Since 3, 1 and 4  are first three significant digits of π, in United States House of Representatives supported the designation of Pi Day, as many people instead opt to celebrate the potentially more interesting Pi approximation day which takes place on 22 July.

The ancient Babylonians calculated the area of the circle by taking 3 times the square of its radius which gave a value of pi=3. Founded in 1988 by physicist Larry Shaw.  Mathematics teacher, William Jones and his Circle invented Pi in 1706. Before this, the ratio had been awkwardly referred to in medieval Latin as “Quantitas in quam cum multificetur diameter, proveniet circumferencia” ( the quantity which, when the diameter is multiplied by it, yields the circumference). Before the appearance of the π approximations such as 22/7 and 355/113 had also been used to express the ratio, which may have given the impression that it was a rational number. Jones, however, believed that π is an irrational number, an infinite, non-repeating sequence of digits that could never totally be expressed in numerical form.