Pi Day
Saturday, March 14
3/14 1:59pm
(It’s also Einstein’s birthday!)
Online at http://www.exploratorium.edu/pi

From San Francisco to New York, in museums, universities, classrooms and in the privacy of one’s own home, (and of course on Second Life), people are celebrating Pi Day — an international holiday born at San Francisco’s Exploratorium — on Saturday, March 14th, at 1:59pm. The number is Pi, 3.1415926535…ad infinitum. It’s the date and starting time, the number you get when you divide the circumference of a circle by its diameter, and it cannot be expressed as a fraction. Come to the Exploratorium and gather around the Pi Shrine to perform pi-related rites and eat ritual food — be it apple pie or pizza pie — in honor of this special number. People sing Pi Day songs, bead a pi string (a physical manifestation of the never ending value of pi), and circumnavigate a pi shrine. Pi Day celebrations culminate, appropriately enough, on March 14 at 1:59pm. That’s the third month, the fourteenth day, at 1:59pm, corresponding to the first 6-digits of Pi. And as an added bonus, 3/14 is also Einstein’s birthday. For more about pi go to http://www.exploratorium.edu/pi. For live webcast at 1pm go to http://explo.tv.

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To be specific, on 3/14/09, at 1:59pm at the Exploratorium, celebrants are invited to circumambulate the Pi shrine approximately 3.14 times, since 3.14 is an approximation of Pi. They will add yet more beads representing the numbers 0-9 to a ritual pie string, where each color bead designates a value for Pi to over 1600 digits, and growing. Music based on the number Pi provides the ambience.

Pi Day is included in the price of admission to the Exploratorium. Pi Day also takes place in the Second Life version of the Exploratorium, known as the ‘Splo. Also join in via a live webcast celebrating Pi Day to examine all things Pi with a pie-throwing contest, Pi Day exhibits and activities honoring everyone’s favorite mathematical constant.

Most important of all, people eat pie.

For more information, go to http://www.exploratorium.edu/pi/

For background information, go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pi_Day