Pi Day

By: Amelia Kondor


By now, it seems obvious that we have taken enough math classes to know what pi is. When pressed to find it, some would say 3.14, some would stretch farther saying 3.14159, and some would simply press the pi button on their calculators. But how long has pi been around for?

Pi as a concept has been known for around 4,000 years. Mathematicians from ancient Babylon in around 2,000 BCE are credited as the first people to approximate pi, which they approximated as 3.125. Ancient Egyptians close to the time estimated pi to be 3.16. These early approximations were largely based on applied mathematics, conclusions being drawn from measurements for buildings and distances. The next person to truly delve into finding pi was an ancient Greek mathematician, Archimedes. He found a more accurate number to represent pi by inscribing a polygon within a circle and circumscribing the same polygon outside of the circle to find an approximate side length. If all these words sound like made up math mumbo-jumbo, check out this video, which roughly shows his technique while using modern forms of trigonometry, for a visual explanation. Another famous mathematician who worked with pi was Aryabhata, an Indian mathematician who lived shortly after when Archimedes did. He calculated pi to three decimal places.

In the 18th century, a Swiss mathematician proved that pi is irrational, and in the 19th century, a German mathematician proved that pi is transcendental, meaning that it cannot be derived from an equation with rational coefficients. These discoveries helped us get to where we are today. Humans have calculated 31 trillion digits of pi, although only a fraction of those need to be used for accurate measurements. Pi falls on March 14th (3/14) every year. While pi day this year has already passed, with your new knowledge of pi, keep an eye out for it next year!

 

“What is pi?” Pi Day, Mometrix, 2023, www.piday.org/learn-about-pi/

“How did Archimedes Calculate pi?” Youtube, uploaded by Math Centre,

www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUVx0TQaxME

Hayashi, Takao. “Aryabhata” Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica,

www.britannica.com/biography/Aryabhata-I

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