March 14 is the favorite day of mathematicians around the world. For those who understood at school that mathematics would never be their job, remember that 3.14 is used to indicate the ratio between circumference and diameter of the circle and to calculate the measurement of the circumference. Monday 14 March is Pi day because according to the Anglo-Saxon reading of dates, 3.14 is the value of the most famous mathematical constant.
PI Greek
Everyone at school knew him, but it was a formal introduction. To calculate the circumference, multiply the diameter (or twice the radius) times 3.14. Pi has a lot more to tell. It is a mathematical constant that is a number that has a defined value. It is indicated by the letter pi, Ï€, of the Greek alphabet. The definition in plane geometry is the ratio of the circumference to the diameter of the circle. It is also used in physics, electromagnetism, frequency calculation and aerodynamics. Statistics and medicine use it. It is also called Archimedes’ constant because he was the first to make it explicit, scientifically approximating it with calculations and geometric figures, but its history is older.
History
All ancient peoples had approximate values ​​for the ratio of the circumference to the diameter of a circle. 16 ninths for the Egyptians, 25 eighths for the Babylonians and from the Second Book of Chronicles in the Old Testament 3 is deduced as the value of this ratio. After Archimedes, the first 35 digits were calculated in 1600. In the following century the symbol was introduced from the Greek alphabet. It was 1706 and the English mathematician William Jones put it in the text A New Introduction to Mathematics.
Number
Here is the number with the first digits after the comma: 3.14159 26535 89793 23846 26433 83279 50288 41971 69399 37510 58209 74944 59230 78164 06286 20899 86280 34825 34211 70679 … 14 is followed by 15 and 19 so many celebrate at 15 and 19 in the afternoon, to be as precise as possible. Uncorking the champagne at the 26 second.
What to do
There are races over the distance of 3.14 miles, compositions of paintings and music and even more directly mathematical conferences. And still make perfectly round cakes. There are also memory competitions for those who remember more digits of the infinite series of Pi. Adepts recommend converting everything to Pi, but you have to be able.
Larry Shaw, an American physicist who in 1988 organized it for the first time at the Exploratorium in San Francisco, declared March 14 as the day of the Greek Pi. The goal was to bring young people closer to mathematics. Since then, everyone has celebrated it, including NASA.
The other 3.14
In the state of Indiana in 1897 an attempt was made to establish by law the value of the number at 3.2.The bill wanted the introduction of a new mathematical truth that also gave the squaring of the circle. The law did not reach the second parliamentary passage. Pi greek day can also be celebrated on 22/7, a fraction that is 3.14, but there is also Pi Approximation Day which is celebrated several times including November 10, the 314th day of the calendar, and 21 December, 355 of the year at 1 and 13 because 355/113 gives the exact constant. One day is added in leap years.
Other Vanity Fair stories you might be interested in:
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Source: Vanity Fair
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