Pi Day 2023: History And Significance Of This Mathematical Constant

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Source: The post is based on the article “Pi Day 2023: History And Significance Of This Mathematical Constant” published in NDTV on 16th March 2023

What is the News?

Pi Day was recently celebrated worldwide to recognize the mathematical constant, Pi.

What is Pi Day?

International Day of Mathematics, or Pi Day, is celebrated on March 14 every year to recognize the mathematical constant, Pi.

The day is celebrated by mathematics enthusiasts and educators worldwide to recognize and appreciate the significance of mathematics in our lives.

Why March 14?

The approximate value of Pi is 3.14. The date, when written in the format of month/day (3/14), matches the first three digits of the mathematical constant. 

Origin: The first Pi Day was celebrated in 1988 by physicist Larry Shaw at the San Francisco Exploratorium.

– UNESCO marked Pi Day as the ‘International Day of Mathematics’ during its general conference in 2019.

– Mathematician and physicist Albert Einstein, known for the “General Theory Of Relativity,” was born on Pi Day in 1879.

What is Pi?

Pi is a mathematical constant that represents the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter. 

It is an infinitely long, irrational number, and its exact value cannot be known. Pi is roughly equal to 3.14 or 22/7.

The value of Pi was first calculated by a mathematician named Archimedes of Syracuse. It was later accepted by the scientific community when Leonhard Euler used the symbol of Pi in 1737.

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