Happy Pi-Day!
by Mrs. Anderson
by Josh Powell
March 08, 2010
No, it is not time to eat a tone of apple pie, but a time to celebrate the mathematical concept and a number that never ends! March 14 is the day celebrated as Pi-Day because it is 3.14, the number of times that a circle's diameter will fit around a circle. Pi goes on forever, and can't be calculated to perfect precision.
3.1415926535897932384626433832795028841971693993751...is known as the decimal expansion of pi. No apparent pattern emerges in the succession of digits. They do not repeat periodically, seemingly to pop up blind chance, lacking any perceivable order, rule, reason, or design - random integers, infinitely.
Around 200 BC, Archimedes of Syracuse found that pi is somewhere around 3.14. Pi is everywhere in nature. Pi is obviously in the disks of the moon and sun. The double helix of DNA revolves around pi. Pi hides in the rainbow, and sits in the pupil of the eye. When a raindrop falls into water, pi emerges in the spreading rings. Pi can be found in waves and ripples and spectra of all kinds, and therefore pi occurs in colors and music. So, on March 14, take a moment to look for perfect circles around you and in nature and celebrate another one of the miracles of mathematics - and if you wish, have a piece of apple pie!!!
