(American) Pi Day

Happy Pi Day!

In the UK, we write the date in the Day/Month/Year format, but our American cousins write the Month then the Day so, whilst we would write today’s date as 14.3.13, in America it is written as 3.14.13 or Pi Day as Pi (to two decimal places) is 3.14.

In two years time it will be even more exciting as the year will be 2015, meaning the date (in the American format) will be 3.14 15 – that’s the first five digits of Pi.

And it gets better than that!

Pi to four decimal places is actually 3.1416, as Pi is 3.141592653 …,  the 9 after the first 5 causes it to be rounded up to 6.

So not only can we celebrate a special Pi day on 14th March 2015 (3.1415), we get to celebrate a special Pi day the following year 14th March 2016 (3.1416) as that is Pi rounded to four decimal places.

But we plucky Brits have our own special day – approximate Pi Day, the 22nd of July as we write the date 22/7 and, as any schoolboy or girl will tell you, 22/7 is a pretty useful approximation for Pi.

So enjoy the day, and if you missed it, don’t worry, its no too long until July!

And as a Pi day treat, here’s a video of someone trying to calculate Pi using, er, pies.

 

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  • By Pi Month on 09/03/2014 at 7:57 pm

    […] Americans have their Pi Day later this month – March 14th – 3.14, as they write the month then the […]

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