On March 14, people gathered around the United States to celebrate Pi Day. Math geeks, schools and private groups get together to celebrate the 3.14 which corresponds to the number Pi. What’s more interesting is today is also the birthday of Albert Einstein, the genius behind 3.14.
In case you’ve forgotten your math lesson, here’s a quick recap to what Pi is. According to CNN News, “Pi is defined as the distance around a perfect circle, or the circumference, divided by the distance across it, or the diameter. It is also involved in calculating the area of a circle, the volume of a sphere, and many other mathematical formulas you might need in the sciences.”
People have been captivated by the number Pi as there is no way to calculate it by simple division. The digits would show up infinitely and without any pattern. The answer goes on such as 3.1415926535897932 ... etc
So, why did Pi became such a big deal? Blatner says that the Pi Day became a hit with the same reason why the new TV show Cosmos is getting a lot of attention.
In an e-mail he said, "People all around the world are hungry to make science and math fun and interesting. We know math and science is important, we know that it's fascinating, but we often don't know how to make it fun and interesting. Pi Day gives us a great excuse to throw away our fear of math and say 'Hey, it IS kind of neat!'
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