Pi Day: five fun facts about 3.14 - Christian Science Monitor

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Pi Day: five fun facts about 3.14 - Christian Science Monitor Mar 14th 2012, 19:42 March 14, or 3.14, is Pi Day. Get it? Pi Day celebrates all things related to the ever-important mathematical constant that measures the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter. Throughout history, much has been done to understand more about this unconventional number; determining its value definitely tops the list. And while we can't tell you what pi is worth, we think there are a few things you should know about π. Here are five. By Andrew Mach, Contributor posted March 14, 2012 at 3:41 pm EDT 1.It goes on forever A coconut cream pie is shown in this February 2012 photo. March 14 is Pi Day. (AP Photo/Matthew Mead) We all know that π is typically rounded to 3.14, as figures with many numbers beyond the decimal point usually are. But did you know those post-decimal numbers continue infinitely? Pi is an irrational number, which means it cannot be represented as a simple fraction, and those numbers cannot be represented as terminating or repeating decimals. Therefore, the digits of pi go on forever in a seemingly random sequence. Pi is also a transcendental number, which means no amount of mathematics could possibly determine its value.  2.Computers can't solve it Desktop computers in a trash can are shown in this 1999 photo illustration. (John Nordell / CSM) A pair of Japanese and US computer whizzes currently holds the record for calculating the most digits of pi – to five trillion decimal places. In 2010, Shigeru Kondo, a Japanese system engineer and Alexander Yee, an American computer science student, eclipsed the previous record of 2.7 trillion places. The pair used a desktop computer with 20 external hard disks that cost about $18,000 to build. It took 90 days to make their calculation.  3.It has stretched the bounds of the human mind Sure, a computer can calculate trillions of pi's decimals, but what about the human mind? The current pi memory champion is a retired Japanese engineer Akira Haraguchi, who in 2006 recited 100,000 digits in front of witnesses in Tokyo. The event took nearly 17 hours. Previously, Mr. Haraguchi set three earlier records by reciting 54,000 digits in September 2004, 68,000 digits in December 2004, and 83,431 in July 2005. To date, however, the Guinness Book of World Records has not officially verified Haraguchi's attempts. The current Guinness-record holder for memorized digits of pi is held by Lu Chao, a 24-year-old student from China, who recited 67,890 digits in 24 hours and four minutes.  4.Not even legal action could determine its value In perhaps one of the most famous attempts to establish scientific truth through the government, the Indiana Legislature tried legally to establish the most accurate value of pi in 1897 with the Indiana Pi Bill. It was proposed by Rep. Taylor I. Record, who introduced it under the long title, "A Bill for an act introducing a new mathematical truth and offered as a contribution to education to be used only by the State of Indiana free of cost by paying any royalties whatever on the same, provided it is accepted and adopted by the official action of the Legislature of 1897." Despite its name, the main focus of the bill was to find a method to square the circle (the impossible task of constructing a square within the same area of a given circle), rather than to establish an actual value for pi, though the bill did dictate values for π, now known to be incorrect. The bill never became law, due to the intervention of a mathematics professor who happened to be present in the Legislature.  5.Happy birthday, Albert Einstein! Legendary physicist Dr. Albert Einstein, author of the theory of Relativity, is shown in this undated file photo. (AP Photo/File) March 14 is also Albert Einstein's birthday. The German theoretical physicist was born in 1879 and died in April 1955. Often regarded as the father of modern physics, Einstein is, of course, best known for his mass-energy equivalence formula or E = mc2 . In 1921, he received the Nobel Prize in Physics for his services to theoretical physics and especially for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect, which was crucial in establishing quantum theory within physics. Though there are no concrete connections linking Einstein and pi, we feel it's worth mentioning those two in the same sentence.  This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Donate to Wikileaks.

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