Happy Pie (Pi) Day!

3.14 is Pi Day

Today is 3-14, internationally known as Pi Day! Pi Day originated in 1988 as a playful celebration of a math theme by Larry Shaw. Larry is a physicist at the Exploratorium in San Francisco who started the tradition to mark the date 3/14 as Pi Day because it matches the first three digits of Pi (3.14).

Here's LARRY!

Originally, the activities involved:

• Marching around in a circular space

• Eating fruit pies

• Reciting digits of Pi

• Celebrating Albert Einstein's Birthday, which coincidentally is also March 14th.

Soon after 1988, Pi Day celebrations spread from the Exploratorium to schools, universities and math enthusiasts around the world.

In 2009, the U.S. House of Representatives officially recognized March 14th as National Pi Day. Then in 2019, UNESCO designated March 14th as the International Day of Mathematics, aligning it with the long-standing Pi Day tradition.

Because Pi Day blends math with some fun, it's now celebrated with pie baking and eating contests, Pi memorization contests, STEM events, classroom and science museum programs.

As the Internet grew, Pi Day became a meme-friendly holiday and now includes a day for math jokes, Pi-digit challenges, Nerdy t-shirts and merchandise and food brands promoting pie deals (Weis has little individual pies for $0.89 today!).

Pie eating on Pi Day

Because it's now an internationally recognized event, other countries have started their own traditions for Pi Day:

• Canada -Schools and universities hold math fairs, pie auctions, and charity bake sales.

• United Kingdom -Math departments host “Pi Minutes” at 1:59 PM (3.14159), and bakeries often join in with themed pastries.

• India -Engineering colleges celebrate with math competitions, coding challenges, and (of course) pie.

• Australia - Pi Day overlaps with the school year, so teachers use it for hands‑on geometry activities and math games.

• Japan - Pi Day blends with Japan’s love of number‑based wordplay. Some bakeries sell special pies, and math clubs host recitation contests.

• Europe - Universities often host public lectures on mathematics, symmetry, and geometry — a more academic flavor.

Some suggested activities for the day include:

• Eating pie - classic event with bonus points if you cut the slices using actual geometry.

• Memorizing the digits of Pi (May take a while).

• Write a Piem - A poem where the number of letters in each word follows the digit of Pi - example "Now I, Even I, would celebrate..." (3-1-4-5-9)

• Make Pi Art - (Spirals, circles, Mosaics, color-coded digit patterns)

• Watch a Math-themed movie (Hidden Figures, The Imitation Game, Good Will Hunting, Pi (Darren Aronofsky)

Just to get your geek on, Here's a bit of a Pi teaser (1st 1000 digits):

3.1415926535897932384626433832795028841971693993751058209749445923078164062862089986280348253421170679821480865132823066470938446095505822317253594081284811174502841027019385211055596446229489549303819644288109756659334461284756482337867831652712019091456485669234603486104543266482133936072602491412737245870066063155881748815209209628292540917153643678925903600113305305488204665213841469519415116094330572703657595919530921861173819326117931051185480744623799627495673518857527248912279381830119491298336733624406566430860213949463952247371907021798609437027705392171762931767523846748184676694051320005681271452635608277857713427577896091736371787214684409012249534301465495853710507922796892589235420199561121290219608640344181598136297747713099605187072113499999983729780499510597317328160963185950244594553469083026425223082533446850352619311881710100031378387528865875332083814206171776691473035982534904287554687311595628638823537875937519577818577805321712268066130019278766111959092164201989

Pi (π) is an irrational number, meaning it cannot be expressed as a simple fraction, and its decimal expansion goes on infinitely without repeating. The sequence above includes the initial "3" before the decimal point, followed by the first 1000 digits after the decimal.

Here's my attempt at a Piem:

"PIE. I love a piece delicious it tastes, mmmmm."

Okay, I may have used a little artistic license with the mmmmm, but you get the idea.

Have a happy Pi Day!