Happy Pi Day!

[Icewynd]

As the math nerds among you will know, March 14th (3/14) of each year is designated as "Pi Day".

Pi is a mathematical constant which expresses the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter, commonly expressed as 3.14. As an irrational number, pi's decimal pattern does not repeat -- at least within the over 10 Trillion decimal places that have been calculated so far. Pi is one of the most frequently used mathematical constants, appearing in formulas in geometry and trigonometry as well as uses in the fields of cosmology, number theory, statistics, fractals, thermodynamics and more.

In popular culture, the digits of Pi are often supposed to contain an encoded message, for example in the Carl Sagan novel "Contact" where the creator of the universe left a message for mankind coded within Pi. Lottery aficionados have also looked for lottery combinations within the digits of Pi as seen, for example, in this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12Si-k2W9Yk

Frequently, Pi is used as a constant in Pick 3/4 workouts, or players search for 3-digit combinations with in the strings of Pi digits.

Pi cannot, however, be used as a proxy for a random-number generator as the digits 01-99 are not evenly represented, at least not in the first 3 Billion digits of Pi that have been checked.

To close, I will share one of my favorite mathematical jokes:

One of the lesser known Knights of the Round Table was Sir Cumference. His excessive waist measurement was said to derive from too much pi.​

Those of like mind can find more here:

http://www.buzzfeed.com/generalelectric/18-ridiculously-geeky-pi-jokes

Happy Pi Day!

 

[Frank]

I've never heard of Pi day. In the UK we have Pancake Tuesday which has nothing to do with mathematics, and more to do with religion, being the day before Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent. We had our pancakes only last week.
I must say it never ceases to amaze me the most seemingly obscure places where Pi rears it's head, where one cannot immediately relate the scenario to circles, or diameters. I was only watching a video on numberphile ( YouTube) yesterday about the million dollar question. That's the prize for proving a mathematical theory (the Riemann hypothesis) , which delves into complex numbers. Not wanting to be left out, and for no apparent reason, Pi works it's way in there too.

 

[Frank]

I just realised that because we write today's date as 14/3 in the Uk, it doesn't work, you can't have a Pi day. I'll just have to stick with the pancakes.