Pi Day is celebrated on March 14th (3/14) to honor the mathematical constant (π) approximately 3.14, which represents the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter. Founded in 1988 by physicist Larry Shaw, it is recognized for math education, eating pie, and, coincidentally, marks Albert Einstein’s birthday.
For more than 20 years, Cathy Bennett’s trig/precalculus students at Pendleton County High School have been celebrating Pi Day by participating in various activities. They have written poems, stories and songs about Pi. The students have described objects in terms of pi from Paden Rightsell’s truck tire to Aiden Baily’s cup. They have displayed facts on posters, socks, shirts, buttons, Power Points and hats. Because it is Albert Einstein’s birthday, the students have celebrated with various flavors of pie, scones, cake, cookies and pizza.
One popular activity students like to participate in is a Pi contest memorizing the most digits of pi. This year Chase Owens memorized 56 digits making him the class winner. Previous record holders are Braelyn Young Simmons with 186 digits followed by Brandy Roberts with 151 digits.
The official Guinness World Record holder for the most decimal places of Pi memorized is Rajveer Meena from India, who recalled 70,000 digits on March 21, 2015.
