3.1415926…
Okay, trying to recite even the first 10 digits of Pi could be difficult.
When eating pies gets attached to such an important mathematical constant and holiday, Pi Day surpasses the coolness of square roots and the quadratic equation.
And eating pie was always part of the celebration. After all, who could say no to pie?
Physicist Larry Shaw came up with the concept in 1988, where he organized events at the San Francisco Exploratorium for visitors and staff to walk around a round shrine of sorts. At the same time, they’d sing happy birthday to Albert Einstein, whose birthday is also on March 14.
Afterward, of course, they would indulge in pie.
It’s obvious to us now that eating pie would be the most appropriate way to celebrate Pi Day, and not to mention during Thanksgiving and Christmas.
However, pies were initially created for easy transportation and preservation of food, according to TIME.
In fact, some historians credit the creation of Pi to the Greeks, who were the first to create the pastry shells. Instead of sweets, the pies would be stuffed with meat.
Nowadays, there are really interesting (and mathematical) ideas that come out of Pi Day when cooks bake the dessert. One sweet example is the Pi pie made by Shannon from A Periodic Table blog. She baked an apple pie that uniquely had apple slices in the numbers of Pi, including a crust on top that had a sequence of Pi as well.
Other ways people celebrate Pi day are by discussing the wonder of Pi, as well as celebrating Einstein’s life and contributions.
While Pi Day has certainly felt like an official holiday, it was actually only recognized by Congress in 2009.
The “real” Pi Day is said to be coming in 2015 at exactly 9:26 a.m., where the next few numbers after 3.14 would designate the year and time.
Well, I would say no one’s waiting for 2015 to come by, but maybe there would be a really epic celebration to celebrate the holiday.
Until then, let them eat pie!