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How to Celebrate Pi Day

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Pi day––a holiday not just for nerds.
Pi day––a holiday not just for nerds.

Celebrated on March 14 at 1:59pm, Pi Day is a special day in the lives of many people devoted to People around the world gather in the shape whose ratio of its circumference to its diameter is the most revered mathematical constant in the known universe. Here's how to join the celebration.

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  1. 1
    Note that Pi Day is held on March 14 because the date is 3.
    Note that Pi Day is held on March 14 because the date is 3.
    Note that Pi Day is held on March 14 because the date is 3.14. Pi Approximation Day is held on July 22, because when using DD/MM format, it is shown as 22/7, the fraction for pi.
  2. 2
    Eat 'pi' foods.
    Eat 'pi' foods.
    Eat 'pi' foods. Many creative ways exist to do this.
  3. 3
    There's the punny approach, like eating pineapple, pizza, or pine nuts and drinking pina coladas or pineapple juice.
    • There's the shape approach, like making cookies or pancakes shaped like pi or making a pie with a pi cut out of the center of the crust. See How to make a Pi Day pie for more the recipe.
    • Of course, whatever you do, Pi Day is simply incomplete without eating pie, even if you don't feel artistic enough to carve the pi symbol out of the top. Purchase a pie from your local bakery, or use the holiday as an excuse to improve your crust-making skills.
  4. 4
    Create some pi ambiance.
    Create some pi ambiance.
    Create some pi ambiance. Just as people display a tree and mistletoe, wear Christmas gear, and sing Christmas songs around Christmas, there is a lot of room for making the environment around you reminiscent of pi. Here are some Pi Day ideas:
    • Wear a pi T-shirt. This idea can be taken further to include pi jewelry (maybe a necklace whose beads represent the numbers in pi), carrying around a pi mug or clock, or other pi paraphernalia.
    • Make your computer wallpaper into something related to pi, change your ringtone either to actual "pi music" or to a song that reminds you of the famous irrational number ("American Pie", for example).
    • Consider changing your internet browser's homepage to a 'pi page'. See the links at the bottom for a few different ones.
  5. 5
    Convert things into pi. This step is absolutely necessary for two reasons: First, to utterly confuse people who have no idea what you're talking about (thus opening the door for enlightenment) and to have fun seeing how many things can be referenced with pi. Consider two approaches:
    • Convert naturally circular things into radians like the hours on the clock. Instead of it being 3 o'clock, now it's 1/2*pi o'clock. Or, instead of it being 3 o'clock, convert the inclination of the sun into radians and describe that as the time.
    • Simply use 3.14 as a unit of measure. Instead of being 31 years old, you are 9pi years old (approaching your 10th birthday). With this same approach, you can find out your next pi birthday (don't forget to celebrate it when it comes!).
  6. 6
    Play pi games and make strange mathematical endeavors. These are in the same step because many math nerds consider them the same thing.
    • There are plenty of traditional games that are appropriate on Pi Day, like a pinata, a pie-eating contest or pie-in-the-face fundraiser, and so on.
    • Answer math questions. Be on the lookout for websites that host math questions on Pi Day.
    • Play Pi Day versions of "Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?" or "Jeopardy;" conduct a Pi Day Scavenger Hunt.
    • Of course, being nerds, there are more intriguing things to do like writing a pi-ku or a pi-em, holding a pi memorization or recitation contest, discussing different ways to derive pi, seeing who can write pi in the most noticeable (though legal) place on campus, at work (or using Post-It notes to form pi), etc., calculate the average error experienced when using 3.14 as an approximation, finding your name, birthday, ATM pin, etc. in pi, finding pi in pi, or discussing what things would be like without pi (the earth being a square and so on). This list could literally go on and on.
    • Hold contests (preferably with two or more people who know about pi) to see who knows the most digits of pi. Have a pi-oriented prize available for the winner.
  7. 7
    Do a pi mile run.
    Do a pi mile run.
    Do a pi mile run. Go on a run for pi miles. You can take this a step further by organizing a pi mile run with friends or colleagues.
  8. 8
    Watch the movie π. It's a dark movie about a mathematician who goes crazy. It's good, but not one for the kiddies though. See the external links below for the IMDB page.
  9. 9
    Listen to Kate Bush.
    Listen to Kate Bush.
    Listen to Kate Bush. Progressive rock musician Kate Bush performed a song titled π on her 2005 album Aerial. Bush sings pi to its 137th decimal place, but omits the 79th through 100th decimal places of pi for currently unknown reasons. Playing π on Pi Day, therefore, is left to the discretion of the celebrant. Just watch out for party-crashers playing Zero by Smashing Pumpkins.
  10. 10
    Help the tradition continue.
    Help the tradition continue.
    Help the tradition continue. Don't let this be a one-time thing – you owe it to pi to celebrate again and again. Set the date for next year and maybe create a pi club or website in the process. Celebrating Pi Day is just as easy as pi (sigh).
  11. 11
    Get married on Pi Day.
    Get married on Pi Day.
    Get married on Pi Day. There's nothing more romantic than being married to the one you love at 1:59:26 PM on March 14th to show that, like Pi, your love will continue forever...


Edit Tips

  • Pi continues indefinitely, and so far it has been tracked out to 2,576,980,377,524 (over 2 trillion) digits after the decimal place using a computer. There are regular competitions to see who can remember the most digits.
  • If you want to memorize pi, here are fifty digits that you can start with: 3.14159265358979323846264338327950288419716939937510
  • Pi approximation day is also celebrated, though less widely. In the international date format this is July 22 (22/7); the 355th day of the year at 1:13 (based on the approximation of 355/113) or November 9/10, the 314th day of the Gregorian calendar. On Pi approximation day it may be nice to eat something that approximates to a pie, such as a Cornish Pasty.
  • If you don't use the American date format, Pi Day instead corresponds to January 3 at 4:16.
  • There is some debate regarding the exact time that Pi Day should be celebrated. Whilst the 1:59PM stated above is probably the most common; it is also claimed that the 24 hour clock should instead be used, and Pi Day celebrated at 1:59AM or 15:09PM.


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Last edited:
April 5, 2012 by Loni_lings

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