Happy Pi Day, everyone. It seems that the U.S. Congress has actually declared it this year. That’s funny. It’s also funny to surf around to various websites to see how much merchandise is available to commemorate this day. I guess everybody needs a holiday, huh? Well, if you celebrate Pi Day in any way, I suggest not getting caught up in all the glitz, but instead think back on the various ways that Pi has influenced your life; e.g. your trig class when you were 15. Check out the first link in this post to see the official Pi Day website, including some fun ideas of how to celebrate the day!

And if you’ve never seen the following visual representation of Pi, enjoy!

Since today is March 14 (3.14), I’d like to wish everyone a happy pi day. Read more about the wonderful number of pi here and here. I’m sure that some of you have seen the following visual representation of pi before, but this animated gif should give everyone a refresher on exactly what pi is. This informative animation was created by John Reid. [Note: I have this animation set so that it will only loop 6 times in total. If you'd like to see it again please refresh or restart your browser.]

I love when people intentionally mix together mathematics and art, and one of the best examples of this merger that I’ve seen for awhile can be found here. As the site itself says, “this experiment attempts to convert the first 10,000 digits of pi into a musical sequence.” You have the ability to choose several preset music scales, or can choose 10 notes either manually or randomly. It takes a few minutes to play through the sequence, and the sounds are quite transfixing. Even though this meshing of pi and music is somewhat artificial, the result is wonderful. It’s worth checking out.

It happens to be the case that there are two different verses in the Old Testament which provide for an approximation of pi. In the NIV translation both I Kings 7:23 and II Chronicles 4:2 give the following measurements for a tank which would be enclosed in the “First” Temple:

He made the Sea of cast metal, circular in shape, measuring ten cubits from rim to rim and five cubits high. It took a line of thirty cubits to measure around it.

Taking these measurements along with the ratio for pi given as circumference over diameter we have a coarse approximation for pi of 3. While not astounding in accuracy, I’m always excited to see how subtle tidbits of mathematics invade even religious scripture. In other words, sometimes math is beautifully inescapable.

In you’re interested in learning more about these two verses I suggest reading an article called “On the Rabbinical Exegesis of an Enhanced Biblical Value of Pi” written by Shlomo Edward G. Belaga. An online version of the article can be found here. The article surmises that the Biblical narrative lends itself to a much more accurate approximation of pi. It’s worth a look if you’re intrigued by such ideas.