Happy Pi day!!

Chiriac Bogdana
Gaudeamus High School
Republic of Moldova
 What is Pi number?

Succinctly, pi—which is written as the Greek letter for p, or π—is the ratio of
the circumference of any circle to the diameter of that circle. Regardless of
the circle's size, this ratio will always equal pi. In decimal form, the value of pi
is approximately 3.14. But pi is an irrational number, meaning that its
decimal form neither ends (like 1/4 = 0.25) nor becomes repetitive (like 1/6 =
0.166666...). (To only 18 decimal places, pi is 3.141592653589793238.)
 History of Pi
 Pi (π) has been known for almost
4000 years—but even if we calculated
the number of seconds in those 4000
years and calculated π to that number
of places, we would still only be
approximating its actual value. The
ancient Babylonians calculated the
area of a circle by taking 3 times the
square of its radius, which gave a
value of pi = 3. One Babylonian tablet
(ca. 1900–1680 BC) indicates a value
of 3.125 for π, which is a closer
approximation.
The first calculation of π was done by
Archimedes of Syracuse (287–212 BC), one of
the greatest mathematicians of the ancient world.
Archimedes approximated the area of a circle by
using the Pythagorean Theorem to find the areas
of two regular polygons: the polygon inscribed
within the circle and the polygon within which
the circle was circumscribed.  be 355/113. To compute this accuracy for π, he
A similar approach was used by Zu Chongzhi
(429–501), a brilliant Chinese mathematician
and astronomer. Zu Chongzhi would not have
been familiar with Archimedes’ method—but
because his book has been lost, little is known of
his work. He calculated the value of the ratio of
the circumference of a circle to its diameter to
must have started with an inscribed
regular 24,576-gon and performed lengthy
calculations involving hundreds of square roots
carried out to 9 decimal places.
Mathematicians began using the Greek
letter π in the 1700s. Introduced by
William Jones in 1706, use of the
symbol was popularized by Leonhard
Euler, who adopted it in 1737.
An eighteenth-century French
mathematician named Georges Buffon
devised a way to calculate π based on
probability. You can try it yourself at
the Exploratorium's Pi Toss exhibit.
 Fascinating facts about pi

1. March 14 or 3/14 is celebrated as pi day because 3.14 are the first digits of pi.
Math nerds around the world love celebrating this infinitely long, never-ending
numbers.
2. The record for reciting the most number of decimal places of Pi was achieved
by Rajveer Meena at VIT University, Vellore, India on 21 March 2015. He was
able to recite 70,000 decimal places. To maintain the sanctity of the record,
Rajveer wore a blindfold throughout the duration of his recall, which took an
astonishing 10 hours! 
3. Physicist Larry Shaw started celebrating 14 March as Pi day at San Francisco’s
Exploratorium science museum. There he is known as the Prince of P i.
4.Pi wasn’t always known as pi. Before 6. Interestingly, some of the most
the 1700s, people referred to the number famous scientists in the world have a
we know as pi as “the quantity which connection to pi day. Albert Einstein
when the diameter is multiplied by it, was born on March 14th,  1879. Stephen
yields the circumference”.  Hawking died on March 15th, 2018 at
5. The Greek letter π is the first letter of the age of 76.
the word periphery and perimeter. And
as we all know, pi is the ratio of a
circle’s “periphery” to its diameter.