For those of you who don't know what I'm referring to, today is March 14. Or, in one particular date notation, it is 3-14! If you want to be even more precise, you could have REALLY celebrated early this morning, at 3-14 1:59:26!
In honor of the annual Pi Day in mathematics, I thought that I would dedicate a brief post to one of the most common irrational constants in all of mathematics: π!
π is a ratio between a circle's circumference and diameter. It is a constant for all circles, regardless of their size. You are probably familiar with these common π-containing equations:
C = πd
C = 2πr
A = πr2
It is an irrational number, meaning that it cannot be expressed by dividing one integer by another integer. So, π cannot be expressed as a fraction. As a result, many aficionados in mathematics pride themselves on being able to memorize π to many, many decimal places. In fact, π has been calculated up to more than a trillion decimal places! You can view the first million decimal places at websites such as piday.org, though since it is irrational, the number of decimals continues infinitely!
In a fun website I just found, I recommend you give a read to 50 Interesting Facts about pi. If you would like to learn more about the history of π and how it was first estimated, the wikipedia page for π also has a lot of historical information, from early methods of estimation by Archimedes all the way through to present-day computer approaches to calculating everyone's favorite constant, π!
This was very interesting post and amazing facts you shared here and this Pi is 4000 years old and form the past 250 years this Pi is used for regular mathematics. Maxima and Minima of Functions of Several Variables
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