Probably the most famous mathematics symbol is Pi (), so much that it even has its own day, March 14th. Every year, pi enthusiasts, mathematicians, students, researchers, and scientists celebrate this day as a way to point out the uniqueness of this constant that has amazed us as humans for centuries.
That is why we decide to enlist some of the weirdest and amazing facts about pi that will give you a deeper glance into why this constant is so important as to have its own day the 3rd month of the year each 14th day.
The earliest use of Pi
Babylonians were the first to record the use of Pi though it didn’t have that name yet. A Babylonian tablet shows how they used this constant to give a value for the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter of 3.125.
Pi was also a very useful resource for Egyptians since it is believed that they built the pyramids of Giza under this constant principle. In other words, the pyramids keep a relationship between their vertical height and the perimeter of their base, just like the one of a circle’s radius and its circumference. Amazing, isn’t it?
Pi was born in Wales
We are not referring to the number used to express the constant, but rather the use of the symbol. In 1706, a welsh mathematician named William Jones decided to use the sixteenth letter of the Greek alphabet.
He took the decision after realizing that the number went on forever, so it needed a symbol as a way to avoid writing numbers infinitely. Though he was the pioneer of using Pi, it was not until Leonhard Euler -a renowned mathematician- started using it in his work that it became popular.
He realized that the number went on forever, so it needed a symbol. There is a plaque to record this on the wall of Ysgol Llanfechell, where William was a pupil.
The symbol was introduced by William Jones, a Welsh mathematician, in 1706. The symbol was made popular by the mathematician Leonhard Euler.
Is not a “normal” number
First of all, Pi is not a number, but a constant that refers to the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter. Moreover, it cannot be expressed as a rational number (for example 1/2), so it is an irrational one that has infinite digits.
Until now, mathematicians are unsure if π contains all the finitely long permutations of digits from 0 to 9.
This means that, since the exact value of Pi cannot be calculated, we will never know the accurate area of a circumference of a circle.
It doesn’t contain the sequence 123456
As strange as it may seem and even though Pi is an infinite sequence, you will not find the sequence 123456 anywhere in the first million digits! That means that such a sequence is truly a unique number.
We will never find all of Pi’s digits
This is because Pi is an irrational number and the reason why it is considered an infinite constant.
It was Issac Newton, who in 1665, calculated Pi to 16 decimal places; however, with computers being more advanced, it is now possible to calculate up to 22 trillion digits of Pi, a record made by a group of Swiss scientists in 2017 who took over a 100 days to accomplish it.
Before computers did the calculations, mathematicians calculate digits manually. The most unfortunate attempt was made by William Shanks, who in 1873 found 707 digits, however, the 537th digit was wrong, making the following digits wrong as well.
Finding Pi’ digit is a computer test
As you can imagine, calculating Pi’s digits is a tough task, that is why researchers use this as a stress test for computing, mainly because it works as a digital cardiogram that shows the level of activity within the computer’s processor.
Pi has its own language
Believe it or not, there are people so into Pi, that they have developed a dialect called Pi-lish. It uses the number of letters in each word to match the corresponding digit of Pi.
There is even an entire book written in Pi-lish. It was Michael Keith, a software engineer, who wrote Not a Wake.
It is truly a mystical date
Pi day has a connection to some of the most famous and renowned scientists. March 14th is Albert Einstein’s birthday and Stephen Hawking’s death anniversary.
