Today's Google Doodle celebrates the 30th anniversary of Pi Day, a day for celebrating the mathematical constant pi by eating some fresh-baked pie and learning about geometry, mathematical constants, and irrational numbers.
Google Today's Google Doodle celebrates pi day.
So what's the fuss all about? Pi represents the number 3.14159265359 followed by an infinite amount of digits without repeating or showing any other kind of pattern, which means that pi is what mathematicians call an irrational number. That's the ratio of a circle's circumference (the distance around the circle's edge) to its diameter (the distance across the circle). In very simple terms, pi is the number that defines the shape of a circle, regardless of its size. We celebrate Pi Day on March 14 because the first two digits of pi are 3.14. The pun works especially well given that pie is round - and delicious.
Of course, Pi Day might be a very different celebration if society had, at some point, decided that pie should be square, or if the Indiana state legislature had gotten its way in 1897.
Ronhip (Ron Hipschman) via Wikimedia Commons Larry Shaw was the genius who realized we could celebrate pi with pie.
If you're celebrating Pi Day today with a slice of pie (or a whole pie; I'm not judging), you can thank physicist Larry Shaw, former curator of the Exploratorium in San Francisco. He started the whole thing in 1988 as a way to make mathematical constants more fun and accessible to the general public - what's more fun and accessible than tasty desserts, after all? The very first Pi Day was a small celebration at an Exploratorium staff retreat, but the next year the museum held a bigger bash for the public. Every year from then until 2017, the party kicked off with a parade at 1:59 p.m., because the next three digits of pi are 159 (math puns are often irrational). Shaw passed away in August 2017, which makes this year's pi day the first time the event has been held without its founder.
In 2009, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a resolution in support of officially designating March 14 as Pi Day, so the holiday has some official backing in the U.S. but not yet enough to shut down post offices and schools.
Today's Google Doodle includes some helpful pie recipes to help you have an all-around good time this Pi Day. While you're celebrating, put a candle or two in your pie and wish a happy birthday to renowned physicist Albert Einstein and astronaut Gene Cernan.
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