A slice of Pi, please?

If you tell people that it's Pi Day, they might, understandably, think apple or banana cream. Maybe pumpkin. Mmm. I could go on and on.

But not so fast.

March 14 (Get it? 3-14, as in 3.14) is Pi Day -- not -- sorry -- Pie Day. In fact, it's the 20th annual Pi Day. And no, schools are not closed.

The Greek letter is the symbol for the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter, known to all high school math students as well as geeks everywhere: 3.1415926535 and on and on.

The first Pi Day was held in San Francisco, at the Exploratorium. Larry Shaw, a physicist and Pi Day creator, pictured below, says people on Friday will walk around the Pi shrine approximately 3.14 times, and, among other things, eat pie.

In a cosmically correct note, Friday is also Einstein's birthday. Let us know how you will be celebrating Pi Day.

(The photo at left was taken by Amy Snyder and the pi/pie photo was taken by David Barker. They were supplied by the Exploratorium.)

-- Mary MacVean

Posted by Mary Macvean on March 14, 2008 in Education | Permalink

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Comments

I'll be wearing my Pi Day tshirt, drinking from my key lime pi mug, while I wait for the Giant Pi to drop at MathematiciansPictures.com and watching the World Federation of Pi Pi Day video while I wait. I also might go to the Pi-O-Matic at the Pi Diner and get some Pi - maybe a light meal of a million digits or so. Pi Day perfection.

Posted by: kaitlyn | March 11, 2008 at 12:04 AM

For those folks who can't get to the Exploratorium for the annual PI Day celebration--such as singing PI songs,creating a Rube Goldberg-like PI chain reaction, eating pie, throwing cream pies in 3 staffers' faces while a physicist talks about PI in the trajectory--they can visit the Exploratorium and its alter ego 'Splo in Second Life. Check out PI Day activities and PI Day art--e.g., the PI-eta, the Leaning Tower of Pi-za. Among the visitors coming to the Exploratorium on PI Day will be a Google Dad, his artist wife and their infant son, PI.

Posted by: Leslie Patterson | March 11, 2008 at 12:14 PM

I think it's great what Shaw & those at the Exploratorium have done to bring about awareness for Pi & math. It's great that thousands of people hear about Pi, and learn about circles and other math concepts at least once a year. And, associating that with a slice of apple or rhubarb pie is... yummy.

Posted by: Dan H | March 12, 2008 at 09:40 PM

I always loved Pi day -- until I found out it was math! Guh.

Posted by: Trixie | March 14, 2008 at 10:21 AM

If we are to be artithmetically correct, in the interest of precision,shouldn't the celebration be held at about 3:35 am or so, which would be exactly 3.1416?

Posted by: DJ | March 14, 2008 at 10:43 AM

Man, I've been running around in circles all day.

Posted by: Superdave | March 14, 2008 at 11:37 AM

You have to eat a square piece of pie at 1:59 PM. Pie are squared!!!

Posted by: Emerson | March 14, 2008 at 11:49 AM

Our Bloggers

The Homeroom is produced by The Times education reporting team, which includes Howard Blume, Mitchell Landsberg, Seema Mehta, Carla Rivera, Jason Song and editors Beth Shuster and Mary MacVean. Here are some additional contributors:

Lance Chapman, originally from Woodburn, Ind., is a 2007 graduate of the University of Notre Dame, triple majoring in mathematics, life sciences and Spanish. While in school, he worked as a Spanish translator for the South Bend Indiana Health Center and volunteered at a local hospital. As a volunteer at the South Bend Center for the Homeless, Lance established a scholarship fund for homeless students in Notre Dame’s department of continuing education. Committed to addressing the educational achievement gap in our country, Lance is postponing medical school to work with Teach For America. He teaches eighth grade physical science at Samuel Gompers Middle School in Watts.

Lauren McCabe, working through Teach For America, teaches 12th grade English and government at Environmental Charter High School in Lawndale. She earned her bachelor’s degree in journalism from Michigan State University in 2006. Throughout college, she participated in Service-Learning Programs, tutoring students in inner-city schools. Lauren, a native of Livonia, Mich., applied to Teach for America in the early fall of her senior year and learned that it would mean a dream come true: a move to California.

Nick Giulioni is 17 and a senior at South Pasadena High School. In addition to working two jobs (one being an internship at the Los Angeles Times) and preparing for his black belt in karate, Nick is the sports editor for his school newspaper, Tiger. He hopes to attend USC next year (no surprise given that a cardinal and gold cap is his constant accessory). He lives with his parents and younger sister.

Antero Garcia teaches English at Manual Arts High School in South Los Angeles. Originally from San Diego, Garcia has a master’s degree in education from UCLA’s Graduate School of Education and Information Sciences. He is a member of the School of Communication and Global Awareness at Manual Arts, a small learning community that emphasizes social justice throughout its curriculum. And he has a personal blog, which can be found at www.TheAmericanCrawl.com.