51 Interesting Facts About Pi

Pi, in mathematics, the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter. The symbol for pi is π. The ratio is the same for all circles and is approximately 3.1416. It is of great importance in mathematics not only in the measurement of the circle but also in more advanced mathematics in connection with such topics as continued fractions, logarithms of imaginary numbers, and periodic functions.

The number pi is always denoted by a symbol or a Greek letter π which is pronounced as “pie”. Pi basically refers to the circumference of a circle being divided by its diameter. However, nobody knows the exact value of pi as no matter to what extent you calculate it the number just goes on. To certain extends the value of pi has been calculated which has been calculated to few digits which are shown to be:

3.141592653589793238462643383279502884197169399375105820974944592307816406286208998628034825342117067982148086513282306647093844609550582231725359408128481117450284102701938521105559644622948954930381964428810975665933446128475648233786783165271201909145648566923460348610454326648213393607260249141273724587006606315588174881520920962829254091715364367892590360011330530548820466521384146951941511609…

In mathematical calculation on the calculator of pi, we do not require to remember the value of pi because there is a presence of the pi button which automatically calculates the value.

What is Pi day?

Pi day is every year celebrated on 14th March as the numbers -3, 1, 4- are the first three significant numbers found in the calculation of Pi. It was United States House which supported the designation of March 14 as Pi Day.

It all started in the year 1988 when Francisco and Larry Shaw at the San Francisco Exploratorium, where he worked as a physicist, along with his other member staff started first celebrating it by walking around a circular space followed by eating of fruit pies. The Exploratorium continues to celebrate the day. Later it was in 2009 when the US House of Representatives passed a non-binding resolution regarding the celebration of 14th March every year as Pi Day. This day is often celebrated with the eating of pies, throwing a pie at each other, discussions related to the significance of Pi and many schools organize competitions, etc to celebrate this day.

For some people even observed the entire month as a pi month. However it was on March 14, 2015, at 9:26:53 super Pi day was celebrated for the first time the day, month year along with time represented the first 10 digits of π.

 51 Must-Know Facts about Pi

1. The symbol of pi has been in use for over 250 years.
2. The symbol for pi was first used and brought into significance by William Jones in 1706 and by a mathematician Leonhard Euler.
3. The accurate value of pi can never be calculated since the calculation just goes on
4. Therefore the accurate circumference of a circle can also be never calculated
5. The record of reciting pi to highest decimal orders was made by a student of the Vellore institute of technology in 2015 which was till 70,000 places.
6. The recitation of the highest decimal order took around 10 hours.
7. Pi is thought to be a part of Greek mythology where many in Egypt believe that the pyramid of Giza at that time was built on the principles of pi.
8. Though Pi day is celebrated on March 14 the exact time to celebrate it is 1: 59 so that the exact number 3.14159 is achieved.
9. Larry Shaw, the physicist who first introduced the symbol of pi is said to be the prince of Pi.
10. There is an entire language developed on pi.
11. According to certain evidence, Pi was first calculated by Babylonia’s residents.
12. Babylonians claimed that they discovered pi  around 4k years ago
13. The value of pi then calculated and taken up by Babylonia’s residents was 3.125 according to the sources.
14.  The Chinese used integer 3 as the value of pi
15. The Babylonians used the value of Pi as 31s
16. Isaac Newton in 1665 was the first individual to calculate the value of pi until 16 places. At that time to calculate until the 16 places were big achievements as there were no calculators.
17. It was in the 1700s that Thomas Lagney calculated the 127 decimal places of π.
18. In 2017 the greatest achievement was when a Swiss scientist calculated and computed 20 trillion decimal places of π which took more than 100 days.
19. A mathematician proved that pi is irrational or a transcendental number.
20. The main purpose of celebrating Pi Day was to create awareness and enthusiasm about science and mathematics amongst the population.
21. The film made on pi which was titled as Pi: Finding faith in chaos won Director’s Award in Sundance Film Festival.
22. The calculation of pi has also been calculated as the stress test for a computer.
23. The number π was so mysterious that one Dutch-German mathematician sends almost half of his life in discovering the 36 digits of pi and later the numbers were engraved on his tombstone.
24. Comedians like John Evans used pi to crack jokes.
25. The calculation of pi has been done till millions of digits but the number 123456 does not occur in sequence anywhere.
26. If the number 123456 does not appear in the sequence this clearly shows the uniqueness of the number pi
27. The number is so long and very mysterious and still, mathematicians have failed to find any sequence or pattern.
28. The Chinese mathematicians were very far in calculating the value of pi as they already used a symbol in place of Pi. They also had decimal notations.
29. In the ancient period, people have a unique method of calculating the value of pi as they just simply kept on adding the sides to a polygon so the size of a circle is achieved.
30. Chinese used 200 to 3,000 sides in order to calculate the value of pi to reach a value 3.14159. Some other mathematicians used about 25,000 sides of a polygon.
31. It was finally in the 17th century that people realized that pi can also be used to calculate the area of other curves along with the circle.
32. In the 20th century onwards finally Pi was used to calculate other area patterns finally.
33. Some said that a circle has an infinite number of corners than saying none as some believed that infinite correlated to the number of decimal places of pi.
34. The value of pi is super difficult to calculate but when use the value with others to calculate area it gives you an exact and accurate value.
35. For every 25,000 miles, the value of pi will only err to 1/4th of an inch. If you enjoy math, you will start to feel how beautiful this actually is.
36. Pi has mysteriously used as a clue in many ways in the entertainment industry it has been used as a  mystery code in one of the 1996 movies “The Curtain” and “The Trek”.
37. In Stark Trek episodes of “wolf and the folds” the last digits of Pi was computed
38. In 2010 a Japanese engineer and an American computer expert broke all records and calculated up to 5 trillion decimal places. Which used computer and 20 external hard disks along with the brilliant minds?
39. The Greek letter π is the first letter of periphery and perimeter which also signifies to the ratio of perimeter to diameter.
40. Many genius men have relation to the Pi day as Albert Einstein was born on Pi day and Stephen Hawkins died on Pi day.
41. The first 144 digits of pi add up to 666 which the mathematician claims that it is the mark of “beast”
42. The mysterious crop circle in Britain showed the first 10 digits of pi embedded within it.
43. “The Pi Search” web page on the internet finds birthdays and other Pi numbers.
44. We have evidence of Pi being criticized by John Donne’s sister in one of his poems translated by Philips Sidney. Here her sister criticizes the finding of the exact value of pi.
45. The first 6 digits of pi 314159 appear in the same sequence at least 6 times till 10 million decimal places of pi.
46. Pi is also referred as circular consonant.
47. Leonardo da Vinci and artist Durer both briefly worked on “squaring the circle,” or approximating pi.
48.  In the first million decimal places of pi there is around 99,959 zeros, 99,758 1s, 100,026 2s, 100,229 3s, 100,230 4s, 100,359 5s, 99,548 6s, 99,800 7s, 99,985 8s, and 100,106 9s.
49. In the Greek letters, π is the 16th letter in the English alphabet P is the 16th letter.
50. Pi is also mentioned in the Bible.
51. There are no zeros until the first 31 digits in the calculation of pi.

Therefore pi has been rightly said as one of the most mysterious numbers as mathematicians have researched over its exact value for over hundreds of years and have intrigued many facts which have already been discussed in this article. Pi Day has been one of the most unique festivals which are celebrated almost every year. 

Without so many researches it would have been quite impossible to find the areas of many figures which includes circles, curves, etc.