International Pi Day

  • Author(s)
    Karen Player
  • Category
    Education
  • Published
    13 March 2013
  • Read time
    2 minutes

Do you know what's special about the 14 March?

Thanks to the North American custom of writing the date backwards, 14 March looks like the circle constant Pi: 3.14

To celebrate what has become known as International Pi Day, Australian Numeracy Ambassador and mathematics comedian, Simon Pampena, is presenting a special event for school children hosted at the Australian Museum.

"Pi captures all the wonders of mathematics in one simple idea. Divide the outside of a circle by its width and you'll get a number. No matter if the circle was the size of your eye or the size of the sun, that number will always be the same," Mr Pampena said.

"But you'll never know what that number is exactly. It's impossible because it goes on forever with no contraction. We have to give pi a special symbol to somehow contain its awesomeness…π", he continued.

We will have students' onsite at the Australian Museum and 13 schools connecting via video conferencing from across NSW. We are really excited to be able to help connect school so they can participate in this program.

The event is being held as part of the 2013 International Year of Mathematics of Planet Earth, which aims to increase public awareness of the critical utility of the mathematical sciences to solving problems of a global nature.