Some Cache Valley eateries offer discounts on March 14, but for many they didn’t give any thought to celebrating a math term.
LOGAN – Who would have thought anything to do with math would be worthy of a celebration?
In 1988 Physicist Larry Shaw from San Fransisco’s Exploratorium came up with celebrating Pi Day on March 14, to party over the mathematical term Pi (π). It turns out Pi is the ratio of any circle’s circumference to its diameter.
Is it worth giving a holiday for dividing a circle’s circumference by its diameter to get Pi, which is usually rounded to 3.14?
Because Pi is an irrational number, its decimal representation goes on forever and never repeats. In many cities in the U. S. because pizzas and pies are round, they expect round food makers to give discounts. Some pizzerias and bakeries have fun with the day and give some sort of deal.
Seems a little irrational to give discounts on Pi Day for round food dishes.
Some eateries in Cache Valley offer discounts on March 14, but for many they didn’t give any thought to celebrating a day for some math term.
In 2009, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a resolution officially recognizing March 14 as Pi Day. They encouraged teachers and students to celebrate the day with activities that teach students about Pi.
NASA is big on Pi Day. They use Pi to map the Moon, measure Earth’s changing surface, receive laser-coded messages from deep space, and calculate asteroid orbits. Pi isn’t just used for exploring the cosmos, it can be used to find the area or circumference of round objects and the volume or surface area of shapes like cylinders, cones, and spheres.
The measurement is more useful in all sorts of ways.
Transportation engineers use Pi when determining the size of a new subway tunnel. Electricians are known to use Pi when calculating currents or voltage passing through circuits.
Some use Pi to figure out how much fencing is needed around a circular school garden bed.
Why is dividing a circle’s circumference by its diameter a reason to celebrate, even if the answer is Pi?
Cache Valley Daily reached out to some Cache Valley Pizza places. There are some giving discounts on Pi Day. Lucky Slice Pizza said they are doing something on Pi Day but aren’t ready to tell what it is. Papa Murphys is giving 31.4 percent off of a pizza and Jacks Wood Fired pizza is giving $10 margaritas all day. There may be other places out there worth checking out.