National Pi Day? Congress makes it official

Caption: To celebrate Pi Day 2008, the San Francisco Exploratorium made a Pi string with more than 4,000 colored beads on it, each color representing a digit from 0 to 9.

(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET)

Washington politicians took time from bailouts and earmark-laden spending packages on Wednesday for what might seem like an unusual act: officially designating a National Pi Day.

That's Pi as in ratio-of-a-circle's-circumference-to-diameter, better known as the mathematical constant beginning with 3.14159.

The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday approved a resolution introduced two days earlier that designates March 14, 2009 (3/14, get it?) as National Pi Day. It urges schools to take the opportunity to teach their students about Pi and "engage them about the study of mathematics."

Backing the measure is a collection of technology and engineering groups, including the Association for Competitive Technology, the American Chemical Society, the Biotechnology Industry Organization, IEEE, TechAmerica, and TechNet.

They sent a letter after the vote to House Science Chairman Bart Gordon (D-Tenn.) thanking him for introducing the measure, which is also sponsored by Rep. Ralph Hall of Texas, the panel's senior Republican. "Thank you for recognizing the importance of math and science education to a knowledge-based economy," it says.

Jonathan Zuck, president of the Association for Competitive Technology, says he's been quietly celebrating Pi day for the last few years by delivering apple, peach, and blueberry pies to colleagues, congressional staffers, and professional contacts.

Zuck called them "lighthearted reminders about the importance of math and science education," adding "this year we decided to put together an effort to see if we could use this as a mechanism to increase awareness for math and science education."

The idea of improving math and science education is thoroughly bipartisan and backed by major tech companies including Microsoft and Intel. But how to achieve that goal has little consensus in Washington; many Republicans have advocated for school choice, which has helped to boost student scores in some areas, while teachers unions and most Democrats oppose it.

[solitare_pax]

Knowing the keen political minds in charge of Congress, they probably thought they would all get a piece of pie for voting on this measure.

[lkrupp]

March 14 is also Albert Einstein's birthday.

3.14159

e=mc^2

[theend14]

ITS ALSO MY B-DAY :-)

IF IT WASN'T IT WOULD STILL BE ONE OF MY FAVORITE DAYS OF THE YEAR THOUGH LOL...

HAPPY B-DAY TO ALBERT AND I :-)
AND HAPPY Pi DAY TOO!

[chuchucuhi]

Well that's just perfect. My sister-in-law, a math teacher and her fiance, an electrical engineer are getting married this Pi day.

[Sam Papelbon]

does anything special happen on 3/14 1:59? i mean i understand that after almost 2 hours of drinking, there's really no point to have a countdown and big celebration at 1:59, but it would have to receive some kind of recognition for being the pi-iest time of pi day.

[Dalkorian]

Holding a big celebration a minute before the bars close isn't going to go down well, no matter how you try to sell it.

HAPPY PI DAY!

[pinkokate]

There is indeed!!
At the San Francisco Exploratorium, which CREATED & STARTED Pi Day to begin with 21 years ago, the official Pi Day parade and other exciting activities commence at 1:59pm.
You can check it all out here : http://www.exploratorium.edu/pi/

[missdwright]

6th period middle schoolers say- "Let us eat pie." The assistant says, "There's pie in your face!"
They have voted and graphed that strawberry and apple will be served. Mrs. Wright says they will measure circumferences and areas of the pies before consumption.

[missdwright]

3rd period middle schoolers say- "We love pi day." They have voted and graphed that chocolate and strawberry will be served. Mrs. Wright says they will measure circumference, volume, surface area and diameter on a chart.

[missdwright]

Mrs. Wright's student challenge: Tell me the number for pi to at least the 100ths place value and what it represents and whipcream pie in the face.

[missdwright]

4th period middle schoolers say- "Pi day is awesome. I'm gonna smash Mrs. Wright." This period has voted and graphed that we will eat pecan and peach pies. Of course, we will measure circumference, volume, surface area, diameter.

[workboots4]

Yay for improving math and science education! The idea of Pi Day was born at the Exploratorium -- Museum of Art, Science and Human Perception in San Francisco by senior staff scientist, Larry Shaw. Since 1988 they have held a zany Pi celebrations like parading through the museum in Pi's numerical order, pizza pie tossing, eating pie, and singing Happy Birthday to the man himself, Albert Einstein!

[AlternateRoute]

Not the right day for it in Australia (or other countires who use d/m/yy notation). We would have to add an extra day to April so it could be held on 31/4. (Easier than adding another 2 months to the year to get 3/14)

[missdwright]

But it is a National day so for the US, it works.

[squeakymath]

Australia should celebrate "lazy pi" (22/7) day on August 31. 31/8 fits in nicely...

[Spacebar265]

This Pi day is also the 15th anniversary of the day the Linux kernel reached version 1.0.0.

[sabre69]

3.14159265358979323846264338327950288419716939937510582097494459230781640628620899862803482534211706798214808651328230664709384460955058223172535940812848111745028410270193852110555964462294895493038196442881097566593344612847564823378678316527120190914564856692346034861045432664821339360726024914127372458700660631558817488152092096282925409171536436789259036001133053054882046652138414695194151160943305727036575959195309218611738193261179310511854807446237996274956735188575272489122793818301194912983367336244065664308602139494639522473719070217986094370277053921717629317675238467481846766940513200056812714526356082778577134275778960917363717872146844090122495343014654958537105079227968925892354201995611212902196086403441815981362977477130996051870721134999999837297804995105973173281609631859502445945534690830264252230825334468503526193118817101000313783875288658753320838142061717766914730359825349042875546873115956286388235378759375195778185778053217122680661300192787661119590921642019893809525720106548586327886593615338182796823030195203530185296899577362259941389124972177528347913151557485724245415069595082953311686172785588907509838175463746493931925506040092770167113900984882401285836160356370766010471018194295559619894676783744944825537977472684710404753464620804668425906949129331367702898915210475216205696602405803815019351125338243003558764024749647326391419927260426992279678235478163600934172164121992458631503028618297455570674983850549458858692699569092721079750930295532116534498720275596023648066549911988183479775356636980742654252786255181841757467289097777279380008164706001614524919217321721477235014144197356854816136115735255213347574184946843852332390739414333454776241686251898356948556209921922218427255025425688767179049460165346680498862723279178608578438382796797668145410095388378636095068006422512520511739298489608412848862694560424196528502221066118630674427862203919494504712371378696095636437191728746776465757396241389086583264599581339047802759009

[hassan_bin_sober]

Keep it simple 3.14 & some change.

[Rohedi]

For preparing celebration of American Pi Day on the next years, please visit to this link :

http://eqworld.ipmnet.ru/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=157.

On the website Rohedi has been posting an exact formula for Pi number in Phi (golden ratio) expression. Wow,...it's very nice formula that I ever see.

[Rohedi]

Apologise, because all of Rohedi's posts on eqworld.ipmnet.ru website recently have been deleted, so if you would be interested to read more Rohedi's version of the newest Pi Exact Formula and the related topics, please visit directly to leave comment of several articles on http://rohedi.com. For example, on the article Bernoulli Integral at http://rohedi.com/content/view/34/1/, The Reason Why Pi is Irrational Number and Smart Formula for Circumference and Area of a circle on leave comment of Smart Solver First Order ODE called as Stable Modulation Technique (SMT) at http://rohedi.com/content/view/25/26/, and How to Prove that dy/dt=0 for a Constant y=c is Correct on leave comment of article Analytical Formulation of nth Order Polynomials at http://rohedi.com/content/view/12/26/. Thanks for your attention.

Best Regards,
Rohedi.