3/14

Today is pi day.

It's also Albert Einstein's birthday. I'd write about him and the theories of relativity (both general and special) but that's too much math in one day - trust me.

Here is pi (to the first thousand decimal places) in all it's circular glory:

3.

14159265358979323846264338327950288419716939937510
58209749445923078164062862089986280348253421170679
82148086513282306647093844609550582231725359408128
48111745028410270193852110555964462294895493038196
44288109756659334461284756482337867831652712019091
45648566923460348610454326648213393607260249141273
72458700660631558817488152092096282925409171536436
78925903600113305305488204665213841469519415116094
33057270365759591953092186117381932611793105118548
07446237996274956735188575272489122793818301194912
98336733624406566430860213949463952247371907021798
60943702770539217176293176752384674818467669405132
00056812714526356082778577134275778960917363717872
14684409012249534301465495853710507922796892589235
42019956112129021960864034418159813629774771309960
51870721134999999837297804995105973173281609631859
50244594553469083026425223082533446850352619311881
71010003137838752886587533208381420617177669147303
59825349042875546873115956286388235378759375195778
18577805321712268066130019278766111959092164201989

Today's the day. Go have some ROUND pizza. Or some ROUND cookies. Or some ROUND donuts (or some ROUND donut holes - but only the whole holes. Stay away from half-holes. They're nowhere, man.)

Drink a toast to Archimedes and his 96-sided polygons.

Cosine, secant, tangent, sine!
3.14159!

UPDATE: I didn't want this post to be political but alas there's a political angle to it. DemocraticLuntz at the dailykos has the story:

On Thursday, 10 Republican members of the U.S. House of Representatives voted against an official (but non-binding) resolution declaring today, March 14, 2009 (3/14/09) as Pi day.

The House periodically passes meaningless non-binding resolutions that frankly have no point, but they usually pass unanimously, the like one the previous day about NASA.

Here's the summary of the bill from thomas.loc.gov:

Supports the designation of a Pi Day and its celebration around the world.

Recognizes the continuing importance of National Science Foundation math and science education programs.

Encourages schools and educators to observe the day with appropriate activities that teach students about Pi and engage them about the study of mathematics.

The ten who voted NO were:

Chaffetz of Utah
Flake of Arizona
Heller of Nevada
Johnson of Illinois
Miller of Florida
Neugebauer of Texas
Paul of Texas
Pence of Indiana
Poe of Texas
Shuster of Pennsylvania

There is no indication as to WHY these ten voted against the resolution.