Pi. Photo by Rawf8. Unsplash

30 Fascinating Facts About Pi


 

Pi is a charming and mysterious number that has captured the imaginations of mathematicians for centuries.

It is represented by the Greek letter and is approximately three.14159.

A circle’s circumference to diameter ratio is defined as Pi.

Pi is an irrational number, which means that its decimal expansion is infinite and never repeats itself.

As a result, it is a one-of-a-kind and special number in arithmetic.

Pi may appear to be just another number, but it has a long history and has captivated mathematicians for centuries.

Because is related to the circle, it appears in many geometry and trigonometry formulae, especially those involving circles, spheres, or ellipses. Statistics, physics, Fourier analysis, and number theory all use it in some of their calculations.

1. Pi has been used been for thousands of years

According to math instructor Steven Bogart in Scientific American, Pi (the Greek letter, pronounced like the word “pie”) is the ratio of the circumference of any circle to its diameter. It is approximately 3.14. The circumference of a circle is always 3.14 times larger than the diameter, regardless of size.

The ancient Egyptians and Babylonians discovered this constant and used it to calculate over 4,000 years ago. Mathematicians named the number “pi” in the 18th century.

2. Pi is celebrated on March 14

Woman fingers with pen writing reminder Pi Day in calendar. Woman fingers with pen writing reminder Pi Day in calendar. Pi Day is celebrated on March 14th (3/14) around the world. Pi stock pictures, royalty-free photos & images

Woman fingers with pen writing reminder Pi Day in the calendar. Photo by Ekaterina79. Unsplash

Larry Shaw of San Francisco’s Exploratorium science museum began observing March 14 in 1988—get it? Pi Day is March 14t. The celebration had grown so large by 2009 that Congress passed a resolution making the designation official.

“The House of Representatives supports the designation of a ‘Pi Day’ and its worldwide celebration…and encourages schools and educators to observe the day with appropriate activities that teach students about Pi and engage them in the study of mathematics,” according to the resolution. In another sign of approval, Pi Day received its own Google Doodle in 2010.

3. Pi is an infinite number 

The pi symbol and numbers of mathematical on glass. Photo by aNdreas Schindl. Unsplash

Pi is an irrational number, which is one of the most well-known (but still mind-boggling) facts. It cannot be expressed as a fraction; it does not end with a repeating pattern (as in the decimal expressions 1/3, 0.33333…, in which the threes repeat forever), nor does it end after a specific number of decimal places (as in 3/4, or.75). It just goes and goes and goes.

Thanks to Google Cloud, pi has been calculated to 100 trillion digits so far. If math is on your mind, try solving these math riddles—they’re trickier than you think!

4. Pi’s digits after the decimal pint are random

Johann Lambert. Photo from Wikimedia

Here’s a mind-boggling pi fact: trillions of digits of pi have been calculated with no discernible pattern. Mathematicians have been searching for those patterns for centuries, but in 1768, a self-taught Swiss-German mathematician and astronomer named Johann Lambert demonstrated that pi is irrational.

5. It is not necessary to calculate more digits for Pi

Want more Pi? Well that’s not necessary!

Interesting fact: While we can calculate pi to trillions of places, we don’t really need them. According to piday.org, scientists can calculate the spherical volume of the entire universe using only 39 places past the decimal point. For its robotic space and earth science missions, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory only uses pi to 15 decimal places. Scientists use 3.141592653589793 for JPL’s highest accuracy calculations, which are for interplanetary navigation. There are no physically realistic calculations performed by scientists that require more decimal points than that.

6. Pi’s current name is much shorter than its previous one

The number’s association with the Greek letter  is actually quite recent, given that the quantity has been known since the time of the ancient Babylonians. In 1706 a British mathematician named William Jones was the first to call the quantity π. People believe he chose pi because it represents the Greek letter P and pi can be used to calculate the perimeter of a circle.

People have found math books from before 1706 that refer to the number as a lengthy Latin phrase that translates to “the quantity which, when the diameter is multiplied by it, yields the circumference.”

7. State legislators once attempted to round Pi to 3.2

Isn’t it easier to just call pi 3.2 if we don’t need all those decimal places? One of the more bizarre pi facts is that in 1897, an Indiana doctor decided that the world should use 3.2 for any pi calculations.

Dr. Edwin Goodwin introduced legislation in the state legislature. He even copyrighted the concept and intended to charge royalty fees to anyone who used it—except those in Indiana. After some debate, the state senate realized that using a law to change a mathematical constant was a ridiculous idea, and the law was defeated.

8. Akira Haraguchi has memorized 100,000 digits of Pi

Hand-written Pi numbers on green chalkboard Close-up of hand-written Pi numbers on green chalkboard. Focus on the blackboard. Pi stock pictures, royalty-free photos & images

Handwritten Pi numbers on a green chalkboard. Photo by domin_domin. Unsplash

Akira recited 100,000 digits of pi in 2006, according to The Guardian. This impressive task is said to have taken him 16 hours and 30 minutes to complete.

9. Pi experts use the association technique to memorise the digits

Classroom, open book against hand-written Pi numbers on green chalkboard Classroom with open book against hand-written Pi numbers on blackboard. Clipping path included for book pages. pi stock pictures, royalty-free photos & images

Classroom, open book against handwritten Pi numbers on a green chalkboard. Photo by domin_domin. Unsplash

How does someone remember a string of 70,000 random numbers? The majority of record-holders (or simply interested hobbyists) employ an association technique. They group smaller groups of numbers together and memorize them: 14, 15, 92, 65, and so on. Alternatively, they could treat each set of nine digits as a phone number and memorize them that way.

Another approach is to assign each digit or small group to a word and then create a story out of those words. Another method is spatial visualization, in which you imagine a familiar location and then assign numbers to various locations within that location. To remember them, mentally walk through the space, seeing the numbers as you go.

10. 589 people formed the largest human Pi symbol

Pi-related achievements have been recognized by Guinness World Records. In 2014, 589 students at a German grammar school formed the largest human pi symbol. In 2017, 520 teachers and students in Todi, Italy, formed the world’s longest human representation of the number pi. The mayor of the city held up a sign with the number three on it, and each person after him stood in for a digit of pi after the decimal place.

11. Pi has many real-world uses 

Every day, scientists use pi to perform important calculations such as calculating the volume of a sphere, the area of a circle, and the volume of a cylinder. These relationships serve as the foundation for determining how stiff a structure is, how it will vibrate, and how a design might fail.

Pi has enabled scientists to calculate the size of a shield required to enter Venus’ atmosphere and the size of a parachute needed to safely land the Curiosity rover on Mars’ surface. Another useful tool that employs pi? It is used by the GPS system in your car and smartphone to calculate specific locations on Earth.

12. You can use a magic trick to calculate Pi

A large sheet of paper, at least 30 toothpicks, a ruler, and a pen are required for this simple activity known as Buffon’s Needles. Draw a series of parallel lines on your paper using a toothpick to determine the distance between them. Then, at random, place the toothpicks on the paper.

Remove any toothpicks that are only partially on the paper or have not landed on the paper at all. Count how many are still on the sheet of paper. Count how many people cross a line.

Divide the total number of toothpicks by the number of toothpicks that cross a line. Now divide the result by two, and you should get pi!

13. Pi has featured in movies 

Pi has made several notable appearances in popular culture. Most notably, there is an entire film called Pi: Finding Faith in Chaos about it. The 1998 film, which won an Independent Spirit Award for screenwriter Darren Aronofsky, is a bit of a downer, as it follows a tormented mathematician who tries (and fails) to figure out the secrets of the universe.

Clicking on a pi symbol in Sandra Bullock’s thriller The Net is what sends Bullock’s character into the confidential government files, and in Alfred Hitchcock’s Torn Curtain, the pi symbol is the code that represents the escape network. It’s even defeated TV villains; in one episode of Star Trek, Spock outwits an evil computer by challenging it to calculate the final digit of pi.

14. A pi-themed crop circle left scientists bewildered

A 150-diameter crop circle appeared by Barbury Castle, near the English village of Wroughton, in 2008. Researchers and conspiracy theorists pondered the image’s origin and meaning, and an astrophysicist eventually deduced that it was a code representing the first ten digits of pi.

15. Pi has a rival number known as “tau”

Every massively popular thing, it seems, inevitably has some detractors, and pi is no exception. A growing number of math enthusiasts believe that the number “tau,” which is two times pi, deserves at least as much prominence in the math world as pi.

Tau, with an approximate value of 6.28, is the relationship between a circle’s circumference and radius, whereas pi is the relationship between the circumference and the diameter. Many people believe that tau is a more intuitive mathematical value than pi because the radius is a more useful mathematical quantity.

16. Pi day is Albert Eisten’s birthday

Pi Day also commemorates the birthdays of Apollo 8 Commander Frank Borman, Astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli, and last man on the moon Gene Cernan.

17. Babylonians first calculated Pi in 2000 B.C

Babylonians established the constant circle ratio as 3 1/8 or 3.125 around 2000 B.C. The ancient Egyptians came up with a slightly different figure of 3 1/7 or 3.143. 

An Egyptian scribe named Ahmes (circa 1650 B.C.) wrote one of the earliest known records of pi on what is now known as the Rhind Papyrus. He was within 1% of the modern approximation of pi (3.141592). 

Plato (427-348 B.C.) is said to have obtained a fairly accurate value for pi for his time: 2 + 3 = 3.146.

Isaac Newton, the father of calculus (meaning “pebble used in counting” from calx or “limestone”), calculated pi to at least 16 decimal places.

William Jones (1675-1749) first used the symbol “π” in 1706; Leonhard Euler (1707-1783) popularized it in 1737.

18. The use of Pi is associated with the Great Pyramid of Giza

The ancient Egyptians were thought to be aware of the concept of pi, and they calculated the location of a circle using a cost of about 3.16. This fee is similar to, but not identical to, the current price of pi.

The pyramid has a square base, sides of about 230 meters, and a height of about 147 meters.

Each pyramid face has a slope of approximately 51 degrees. There are eight stages, which correspond to the angle formed by a rectangular’s diagonal with respect to its facets.

Using this courting, the historical Egyptians were able to calculate the ratio of the pyramid’s bottom to its peak, which is equal to 2, or twice the size of the pyramid.

The historical Egyptians were able to calculate the ratio of the perimeter of the pyramid’s bottom to its peak using this courting, which is equal to 2, or twice the cost of pi. This allowed them to ensure that the pyramid was constructed with precise dimensions and angles.

19. Reciting the value of Pi would take over a decade to finish

The digits of would take approximately 133 years of nonstop recitation if all 6.4 billion of its known figures were used.

20.  Archimedes of Syracuse made the first calculation of π

The Home of Archimedes. Photo by gri*su. Wikimedia

It could be the reason he is regarded as one of the greatest mathematicians of all time. He used the Pythagorean Theorem to calculate the area of a circle as well as the areas of two polygons – one containing the circle and one inside the circle. However, Archimedes admitted that he had only arrived at an approximation and not the exact value of π.

21. The first 36 digits of Pi is called the Ludolphine Number

PI PI Pi stock pictures, royalty-free photos & images

Pi. Photo by alengo. Unsplash

It is named after the German-Dutch mathematician Ludolph van Ceulen, who dedicated his life to calculating the range. According to legend, these numbers were engraved on his now-lost tombstone.

22. Mathematical terms hail the figure as transcendental

Pi, Greek letter, constant irrational number. White color pi on red numbers stack, 3d illustration stock photo

Symbol of Pi. Photo by Rawf8. Unsplash

Because Pi is both transcendental and irrational, it is not always the basis of any non-steady algebraic equation with rational coefficients. Ferdinand von Lindemann, a German mathematician, proved this in 1882 using a method known as the Lindemann-Weierstrass theorem.

In reality, the discovery of pi’s transcendence prompted many mathematicians to search for other transcendental numbers, resulting in the creation of a completely new branch of mathematics known as transcendental number concept. Pi and other transcendental numbers continue to fascinate and inspire mathematicians around the world to this day.

23. Chinese led the search for the digits of Pi

Many mathematicians believe that the Chinese language is better suited to numerical computations. As a result of their decimal notations and the presence of a symbol for the number zero, Chinese mathematicians took the lead in the Pi game. Meanwhile, European mathematicians could not use the zero symbol until the late Middle Ages, when they collaborated with Indian and Arab wisdom.

24. Pi has a customized colonge by Givenchy

perfume bottle in the sun - Image. perfume bottle in the sun - Image. perfume stock pictures, royalty-free photos & images

Perfume bottle. Photo by Fototocam. Unsplash

Givenchy launched a men’s cologne named after Pi. The French luxury fashion house focused its marketing on the sexual appeal of intelligent, visionary men.

25. Pi has a language dedicated to it called Pilish

Pi enthusiasts developed a dialect in which the letters in the succession of words have the same number of letters as the digits of Pi. Mike Keith, an American mathematician, wrote “Not a Wake,” an entire book written in Pilish.

26. Pi was mentioned in the Bible 

person's hand holding book page

Someone holding the Bible. Photo by Rod Long. Unsplash

According to 1 Kings 7:22, the altar inside Solomon’s temple was “ten cubits from brim to brim… and a line of thirty cubits did compass it round about.” Scholars interpret this verse to mean that 3 is the value of Pi.

27. The value of Pi was used in the O.J Simpson trial 

During the infamous O.J. Simpson trial, defense attorney Robert Blaiser and an FBI agent argued. The Pi-related topic appeared to be intended to highlight the FBI agent’s flaws.

28. July 22 is the alternative Pi day

 pi stock pictures, royalty-free photos & images

Pi Day-themed Chalkboard Blackboard with Happy Pi Day message. Photo by JMP Traveler. Unsplash

Other countries’ math enthusiasts celebrate Pi Day on July 22.

Dates are written in the day/month format in most countries other than the United States. This style writes July 22 as 22/7, which is the fractional value of Pi.

29. Rajveer Meena hlds the Guinness Record for the Pi game

He could only remember 70,000 digits, and the award was given on March 21, 2015, at the VIT University in Vellore, India. He wore a blindfold for the duration of the recitation, which lasted about ten hours.

30.  1.5 appears the most times in the first million decimal places of Pi

The number five has been repeated 100,359 times. The 4s are second with 100,230, followed by the 3s with 100,229, the 9s with 100,106, the 2s with 100,026, the 8s with 99,985, the zeros with 99,959, the 7s with 99,800, the 1s with 99,758, and the 6s with 99,548.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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