Get prepared: Pi day is coming!

pi day

Pi day, the unofficial annual holiday commemorating the math constant π, has this year a special significance. It is celebrated on March 14th, or 3/14 in the month/day date format, as the three first numbers of the constant. Furthermore, a sequential time will also happen tomorrow, on 3/14/15 at 9:26:53, when the clock will display the first 10 digits of π. The Pi instant, as it has been called, turns tomorrow’s date in a once-in-a-century celebration.

Pi day was founded in San Francisco by Larry Shaw, in 1988. Since then, math and science enthusiastics have been celebrating the Pi day all around the world. The widespread tradition consists in eating fruit pies (Pi is sometimes pronounced as /paɪ/), apart from, of course, different competitions and quizzes based on the well-known number.

Pi is an irrational number that represents the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter, commonly approximated as 3.14159… It has multiple applications in all science fields, including physics, biology and, of course, geometry.

However, Pi has earned some enemies too. His nemesis, Tau τ, and its followers demand the end of Pi’s tyranny. True story. In 1958, Albert Eagle proposed replacing π by τ = π/2, arguing that τ, as the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its radius rather than its diameter, is more natural than π and simplifies many formulas. Check out this explanatory video Vi Hart.

Nevertheless, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) release its application decision letters on Pi Day, at Tau Time (that is tomorrow, March 14, at 6:28pm EDT), to unite these two stances.

Don’t miss this century’s Pi instant and get prepared for a unique infinite moment! 🙂

Besides, everybody loves pie.

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