Yes, once again we’ve reached “pi day” on the calendar. And what is “pi day”?
It is March 14th which can be abbreviated as 3.14 (which is rather close to 03/14 as we like to call it in America. (Yes, the British abbreviate dates with the day coming before the month, so to them, today is “14/03”.)
Also, 3.14 is just an approximation of “pi”. Its approximate value is 3.14159265358979323846264338327950288…
That figure was calculated by Ludolph Van Ceulen in a paper published in 1615.
And why do I say it is an approximate value? Because “pi” is a transcendental number whose final digit can never be calculated.
And just how accurate a “pi value” value do we need? Well, Marc Rayman of NASA states that at most they will use a value of “pi” to 15 decimal places or 3.141592653589793.
Basically, Ludolph Van Ceulen calculated a “pi value” over 4 centuries ago, that was 100 billion billion times MORE accurate than what NASA requires today!
So, the people who calculate “pi” to ridiculous lengths do it for the sake of calculation or to get their names published in record books.
Currently the most accurate “pi” value is 62.8 trillion digits and calculated by The University of Applied Sciences in Graubünden, Switzerland.
Incidentally, the legendary physicist Albert Einstein was born on March 14, 1879 and another legendary physicist, Stephen Hawking, sadly passed away on March 14, 2018.
I made key lime in celebration of pi(e) day.
Some folks think \tau = 2\pi is the better constant – feel free to celebrate on June 28.
Brian
Here’s hopin’ y’all are happy as pi.
We’re planning on pizza for Pi Day. 
we have an assortment of pies in the office today.
I’ll have a piece of blueberry or pecan, please.
I used to make chocolate π to take into work with a couple of these molds. Never tried ice cubes. Was a big sensation internationally, apparently us Yanks have everything.
Now this sounds like a plan! Chased with a pie desert, of course.
Is there some sort of Pi drink? What would that be?
Happy Pi Day everyone!
At your local time of 3:54pm today it’ll be π time on π day (Pi Time on Pi Day).
Pi ≈ 3.14159 ≈ ≈ 3/14 and 15.9 hours = 3/14 and 15 hours, 54 minutes.
Several sites provide the first x digits of Pi. Here we have 1 million digits of Pi:
Which is short for:
And here are the first thousand digits of Pi, from:
https://is.gd/piDigits1thousand
= 3.1415926535897932384626433832795028841971693993751058209749445923078164062862089986280348253421170679821480865132823066470938446095505822317253594081284811174502841027019385211055596446229489549303819644288109756659334461284756482337867831652712019091456485669234603486104543266482133936072602491412737245870066063155881748815209209628292540917153643678925903600113305305488204665213841469519415116094330572703657595919530921861173819326117931051185480744623799627495673518857527248912279381830119491298336733624406566430860213949463952247371907021798609437027705392171762931767523846748184676694051320005681271452635608277857713427577896091736371787214684409012249534301465495853710507922796892589235420199561121290219608640344181598136297747713099605187072113499999983729780499510597317328160963185950244594553469083026425223082533446850352619311881710100031378387528865875332083814206171776691473035982534904287554687311595628638823537875937519577818577805321712268066130019278766111959092164201989
I found that there is Pi beer. But here, Pi is for PI, Padre Island in Texas.
Here, sing along to 10000 digits of Pi:
That youtuber with too much time on their hands used a program to extend out the digits part of this song by Hard n Phirn. NWFW lyrics in a rap section in the middle.
This is not an accurate statement—the thing to take away is that “15 decimal places” really means the use of IEEE double precision, which is sufficiently precise for your needs, except when it is not. It is also not a decimal format. In any case, that is not a statement about “pi” per se; that goes for any calculation.
Why suddenly go all decimal-like when you get to the hours? If it’s the 3rd month, 14th day, 15th hour - wouldn’t it make more sense to celebrate at the 9th minute? Then the 26th second.
In honor of the day I shall behave irrationally.
Certainly. You can do that too.
I asked my college computer science students what pi is. They’d usually start rattling off digits until I show them the official Java docs from Oracle which states that Math.PI is:
I would tell them to focus on closer than any other. Then we’d talk about double precision and why it doesn’t get any better.
Today is also my 59th wedding anniversary. The concept of pi day did not exist 59 years ago, but we always celebrated Einstein’s birthday.
I try to remember every March 14th to post on Facebook “Happy half-tau day!”.
A friend of mine scheduled his wedding for June 28, specifically so it’d be easy to remember his anniversary.