Happy Pi Day!!!!

Happy Pi Day !!!

It’s also Albert Einstein’s birthday, who was born on March 14, 1879

The first calculation of pi was done by Archimedes of Syracuse (287–212 BC), one of the greatest mathematicians of the ancient world.

Archimedes approximated the area of a circle by using the Pythagorean Theorem to find the areas of two regular polygons: the polygon inscribed within the circle and the polygon within which the circle was circumscribed.

Since the actual area of the circle lies between the areas of the inscribed and circumscribed polygons, the areas of the polygons gave upper and lower bounds for the area of the circle.

Archimedes knew that he had not found the value of pi but only an approximation within those limits. In this way, Archimedes showed that pi is between 3 1/7 and 3 10/71.

 

Mathematicians began using the Greek letter π in the 1700s. Introduced by William Jones in 1706, use of the symbol was popularized by Leonhard Euler, who adopted it in 1737.

Math nerds likely had already circled today on the calendar, but it's worth noting this year's "Pi Day" is a once-in-a-century occurrence. 

March 14 -- or 3/14 -- celebrates the mathematical constant of pi. 

Pi represents the ratio of circumference of a circle divided by its diameter. While it is often abbreviated as 3.14, pi has an infinite number of digits beyond the decimal point, starting with 3.141592653. 

Last year's Pi Day was one to celebrate since it was 3/14/15, perfectly matching the first numbers past the decimal point of pi. 

Last year, hardcore math fans even started celebrating the day at exactly 9:26 a.m. and 53 seconds. 

There's a big reason to celebrate this year too -- math enthusiasts are calling today "Rounded Pi Day." 

 

When rounding pi to the ten-thousandth (that's four numbers past the decimal point), it comes out to 3.1416, matching today's date -- March 14, 2016. 

And if you need any more reason to geek out about March 14, here's one: it's Albert Einstein's 137th birthday.

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pi
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