If you do not spend much time in the nerd-o-sphere (pun fully intended), can not realize that March 14 (14.03) is one day at a loved one has mathematically.
I should not have to tell readers, but is a mathematical constant pi - the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter. The actual proportion is quite close to pi to 12 places 22/7--though is 3.141592653589, 3.142857142857 not - and is very useful to calculate the area of a circle and other activities that even the nerdiest of writers like me, try to avoid a daily basis.
Gina Smith TechRepublic contributor to the site, has a little less ashamed of their love for pi. She published a long list of their favorite pi facts acquired over the years in aNewDomain (Disclosure: I am a contributing editor for that site). Here are some of my favorites:
• March 14 - Pi Day 2012 - is also the birthday of Albert Einstein. Cool.
• The calculation of pi is not as cool as memorization and recitation of the same. Actually, there are clubs that train people to do this. I once saw a Japanese student, Kiroyuki Centella, reciting Pi from memory during a competition. It took 112 hours - what precisely recited 42,195 places, to a crowd in the NHK Broadcasting Center in Tokyo.
• Pi is useful for another purpose. It is used to calculate the size of his hat. Measure your head - its circumference - the measurement divided by pi and round to one eighth of an inch.
• If you are ever assigned the task of estimating the height of an elephant, here's the trick. Measure the diameter of your foot and multiply that number by two. Then multiply the result by pi.
• Do you think you could figure a circle the size of the entire universe (up to a proton) with only 39 places pi? It's true.
Pi Day on March 14 has become a day to celebrate mathematics and science in the United States, while most of the rest of the world is celebrated on July 22 - or as they write in the UK : July 22 or 22/7.
The celebrations will take place tomorrow in the classroom and scientific institutions across the country, led by the Exploratorium in San Francisco, whose "Prince of Pi", physicist Larry Shaw, is often credited with founding of Pi Day.
The Exploratorium in IP-related activities will also be webcast and extend in Second Life. Princeton is another focus of 3.14 party. There, we will celebrate both the constant and Einstein's birthday.
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