TODAY IS "PI DAY," TO CELEBRATE A MYSTERIOUS NUMBER

[jose v]

TODAY, 3/14, IS "PI DAY!"
3.14159265358979323846264338327950288...

Today is offically "Pi Day," a day to honor the number "Pi" which is an endless decimal number expressing the relation of the circumference of a circle to its diameter. Its first 3 digits are 3.14 and therefore it falls on "3/14" each year.

I found this animated gif image in a CNN article about the "celebration" today and liked it a lot and felt I had to share it. The picture shows the meaning of Pi without needing a single word to explain it. Stare at it a while and you will always remember the meaning of this "magic" number.

See: CNN article about "Pi Day"
http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/03/12/pi.day.math/index.html

You can read a nice article about Pi here at Wiki:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pi

As an irrational number the series of decimals never ends or repeats, and thus its actual value can never be exactly stated; it goes on forever.

Wiki tells us that "Well before computers were used in calculating pi, memorizing a record number of digits had become an obsession for some people."

If a circle is such a simple shape, how can its key proportion be so complex? Why is it impossible to know what pi is exactly, its digits continuing on infinitely in a seemingly random fashion?

"It rubs off even on people who don't really understand what it means," Blatner said. "We hunger for true mystery, even in our everyday lives, because there's so little that really seems mysterious anymore."

Besides a plethora of educational Web sites that have cropped up with facts about pi and activities for Pi Day, dozens of memorization enthusiasts such as Umile have posted videos of themselves reciting or typing out digits on YouTube (here's Umile at 1,000 digits) . There are also plenty of poems and songs dedicated to pi, including my own American Pi.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/03/12/pi.day.math/index.html

I don't know why but LIKE the fact that there is something mysterious about the very existence of such a simple thing as a circle so I've become a "Pi Day" fan today - a day to remember the mystery and wonder all around us.

[KBull86]

Thanks jose v that image is pretty cool and explains it so easily ha, don't know why they didn't just draw that back when I was in school.