# Happy "PI Day" Everyone **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 14, 2023, 8:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-pi-day-everyone/981145 "2023-03-14T08:32:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2023, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-pi-day-everyone/981145/41 "2023-03-15T21:54:02Z")
> [@Bob\_Blaylock](#): > > Verified, via quick experiment in Excel. Of all the possible permutations of any number in the range 1-2, and any other number in the range 1-31, either divided by the other, there is only one in which the difference between the result and π is less than 0.002, and that is 22÷7. Mathematicians have ways of tracking this. 22/7 is the best rational approximation to pi, all the way until you get to 355/113 (alluded to in my previous post). ---
**Author:** ![carnut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnut/32/3531_2.png) [@carnut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnut)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2023, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-pi-day-everyone/981145/42 "2023-03-15T22:03:32Z")
I settled for pizza, but would have gotten a fruit pie slice for dessert if the pizza shop had them for sale. ---
**Author:** ![Bob\_Blaylock](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_blaylock/32/3235_2.png) [@Bob\_Blaylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bob_Blaylock)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2023, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-pi-day-everyone/981145/43 "2023-03-15T23:23:06Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Mathematicians have ways of tracking this. 22/7 is the best rational approximation to pi, all the way until you get to 355/113 (alluded to in my previous post).   No doubt there are much more elegant ways that what I used, to make this determination.  Mine was a quick, crude, brute-force method, setting up an Excel sheet to calculate every possible permutation, and then having it highlight any results that were less than 0.002 away from π, of which it found only one. ---
**Author:** ![N9IWP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/n9iwp/32/3154_2.png) [@N9IWP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/N9IWP)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2023, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-pi-day-everyone/981145/44 "2023-03-16T00:13:28Z")
> **[Best rational approximations for pi](https://www.johndcook.com/blog/2018/05/22/best-approximations-for-pi/)** > > It's easy to create rational approximations for π. Every time you write down π to a few decimal places, that's a rational approximation. For example, 3.14 = 314/100. But that's not the best approximation. Think of the denominator of your fraction as... Found the above in a quick search. Brian ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2023, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-pi-day-everyone/981145/45 "2023-03-16T00:44:44Z")
> [@markn\_1](#): > > Well, approximately. 22/7 is a better approximation than 3.14 (although not a lot better). ---
**Author:** ![Napier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2023, 12:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-pi-day-everyone/981145/46 "2023-03-16T12:20:43Z")
> [@Riemann](#): > > make a cherry pie and stab it 23 times I think I’d have to stab it more times than that. 0.043 Pi seems like a pretty big mouthful. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2023, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-pi-day-everyone/981145/47 "2023-03-16T12:24:23Z")
You too, k9? ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2023, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-pi-day-everyone/981145/48 "2023-03-16T15:03:33Z")
> [@Napier](#): > > I don’t notice it’s Pi day until it’s too late in the day to score any pie, and I promise myself I’ll get two pies to make up for it, on Tau day. 2πr better than one. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/happy-pi-day-everyone/981145.md?page=2)