It is 3/14/2021 and PI day is upon us. My company had an extensive Pi day event where people demonstrated all sorts of innovative products and ideas. After the event, I started thinking about π, π day and the relevance of π in our life. I found that π (3.14……) is extremely relevant for all sorts of innovation and specifically in space technology.
Did you know these amazing things about PI?
1.Pi day was started in 1998, by a physicist at San Francisco Exploratorium, as a celebration of Pi. Yes, real pies were involved.
- National Pi Day (March 14) was declared by the US Congress in 2009. In November 2019, UNESCO decided Pi Day as the International Day of Mathematics
- PI is considered the swiss army knife of our universe. It is used to answer questions about anything that is spherical or circular and the number has infinite digits
- Ratio of Circle’s Circumference to its diameter is ALWAYSequal to PI. This applies to the largest planets to smallest atoms!!!
- Pi is ancient. Pi was named only in the 18th century and the symbol Pi was not used until swiss mathematician Leonhard Euler used it in the 1730s.
- Even the Bible has a pair of passages about Pi 10 cubits from brim to brim while “30 cubits did compass it round about” – dimensions that place the value of what we now call pi at 3.
- As NASA explores space (which is full of spherical and circular things), it uses PI extensively 18 Ways NASA Uses Piand How Pi Makes NASA/JPL Go ‘Round
- PI is a cultural icon. Apu, from Simpsons, claimed to know 40000 digits of PI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_T34r4AysIw. In Star Trek series Spock foils an evil computer by instructing it to compute pi to the last digit Spock Destroys Evil Computer
- PI has been calculated up to 31 trillion digits – 31,415,926,535,897 to be exact. The record for memorizing digits of pi, stands at 70,030. Want to see how many digits of Pi you can memorize? Try for yourself Pi Quiz
- Pi Day, March 14this Albert Einstein’s Birthday. Other notable Birthdays on Pi day include composer Johann Strauss. Famous Physicist Stephen Hawking died on March 14, 2018.
- On Pi day if you feel like eating Pie or Pizza see discounts at Pi Day discount(Pizza for $3.14 and more)
For more celebrations of and information try the links below
how many digits of Pi does NASA need and use
*** Article Contributed by Amrish Chopra, Life Member, ASEI Silicon Valley *****
