Happy Pi Day! Yes today, March 14, is the celebration of the mathematical symbol pi, which of course is written as 3.14 for short.

Pi Day was first celebrated in 1988 at San Francisco’s Exploratorium, a museum of science and technology. It was physicist Larry Shaw, an employee of the museum, who decided Pi Day should be celebrated.

“He always sort of liked to combine crazy, fun ideas with science and math,” said his daughter Sara Shaw to ABC News. “It’s a celebration and a coming together of everybody to enjoy something that is based in science but in a fun, educational way.”

What is the significance of Pi? Scientists have known for centuries that regardless of the size of a circle, the circumference and diameter always have the same ratio – 3.14, or pi.

Of course pi has no end and no repeat pattern in its numbers. If you put the pi symbol into a calculator, it shows 3.141592654 because the screen runs out of space. However, it never ends.

Teachers have embraced pi day with fun math, art and science activities for their students. Some have even incorporated pi into their English classes, writing pi-ku poetry, similar to Haiku, with the first line having three syllables, the second one syllable and the third four syllables.

And there is no shortage of pi apparel, like the shirts work here by CES teachers!

 

How about this – March 14 is also Albert Einstein’s birthday! He was born in 1879.

The holiday received so much recognition that in March 2009, the U.S. House of Representatives designated March 14 as Pi Day.

 

Cheers to Pi Day! Do some math, write a poem, eat some pie, Inspire.