by West Palm Beach, Florida (AP) – Mathematics enthusiasts around the world, from students to rocket scientists, the PI Day, who is 14th or 3/14 – the first three digits of an infinite number with many practical uses.
Many people will mark the day with a piece of cake – sweet, hearty or even pizza.
Pi is simply a mathematical constant that expresses the ratio of the scope of a circle to its diameter. It goes to numerous formulas that are used in physics, astronomy, engineering and other areas and go back thousands from years to ancient Egypt, Babylon and China.
The PI Day itself dates from 1988 when physicist Larry Shaw celebrated in the Exploratory Science Museum in San Francisco. The holiday was only recognized nationally two decades later. In 2009, the Congress described every March 14 as a big day – hoping to arouse more interest in mathematics and natural sciences. Fittingly, the day is Albert Einstein’s birthday.
Here is a little more about the origin of the vacation and how it is celebrated today.
What is Pi?
Pi can calculate the scope of a circle by measuring the diameter distance directly over the center of the circle and multiply it by 3.14.
It is considered a constant number and is also infinite, which means that it is mathematically irrational. Long before computers, historical scientists such as Isaac Newton have calculated decimal places for many hours. Today, researchers with highly developed computers have developed trillion digits for PI, but there is no end.
Why is it called PI?
It only got its name in 1706 when the Welsh mathematician William Jones used the Greek symbol for the number.
Why this letter? It is the first Greek letter in the words “periphery” and “scope”, and Pi is the relationship of the periphery of a circle – or the scope – to its diameter.
What are some practical uses?
The number is the key to pointing an antenna exactly on a satellite. It helps to find everything from the size of a massive cylinder that is needed in sophistication, up to the size of the paper rolls used in printers.
PI is also useful to determine the required scale of a tank that serves heating and air conditioning systems in buildings from different sizes.
NASA uses PI daily. It is the key to calculating organs, the positions of planets and other heavenly bodies, elements of the rocket drive, communication via space vehicles and even for the correct use of parachutes when a vehicle injects or ends up on Earth.
With only nine digits PI, scientists can calculate the scope of the earth so precisely that they only meet about a quarter of inches (0.6 centimeters) per 25,000 miles (about 40,000 kilometers).
However, it is not just mathematics
Every year the San Francisco Museum, which shaped the holiday, organizes events, including a parade about a circular badge, which describes 3.14 times PI shrine -and then of course festivities with a lot of cakes.
Many events are now taking place across the country on the College Campus. At Florida Atlantic University in Jupiter, Florida, students in Jupiter Mathematics Club organize a Pi Day Extravaganza with a raffle to meet math professors with a cake, together with a competition that memorized most of the PI digits.
Restaurants across the country, including some pizza chains, also offer 3.14 US dollars specials on the PI Day.
NASA keeps its annual Pi Day Challenge online and offers many games and puzzles, some directly from the space agency’s own playbook, e.g.
What about Einstein?
The most famous scientist in the world, Einstein, may have been born on March 14, 1879 in Germany. The infinite number of PI was used in many of its breakthrough theories, and now the PI Day gives the world another reason to celebrate its achievements.
The famous physicist Stephen Hawking died in a little mathematical symmetry on March 14, 2018 at the age of 76. Nevertheless, Pi is not a perfect number. He once had that to say:
“One of the basic rules of the universe is that nothing is perfect. Perfection simply does not exist. Without imperfection, neither you nor I would exist. “
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The reporter of Associated Press, Stephany Matat, contributed to this report from West Palm Beach, Florida.
