About a month ago, we publicly announced details about the upcoming Make: Day at the Science Museum of Minnesota for the first time. One astute reader to our site, upon noticing the date of our event, left the following comment:
3.14
Make: Day is celebrated on Nat’l Pi Day! Totally appropriate!
But what is Pi Day? Why is it a cause for celebration?
Pi Day is the date most closely representing the numerical value of Pi on the Gregorian calendar. Pi/Ï€/3.1415926535…, as I’m sure many in the Make community know, is a mathematical constant, and the value of the ratio of any (and all) circle’s circumference to its diameter. But even for those mathematically disinclined, circles aren’t exactly what one would call an intimidating scientific (or psychological) concept. From here, our friends at Wikipedia help fill in the gaps:
Probably because of the simplicity of its definition, the concept of pi and, especially its decimal expression, have become entrenched in popular culture to a degree far greater than almost any other mathematical construct. It is, perhaps, the most common ground between mathematicians and non-mathematicians.
So while Pi Day is often billed as a holiday for nerds, we say it’s a holiday for everyone! We invite you to come to the Science Museum of Minnesota this Pi Day and celebrate with us, John Park, Geek Squad Agents, and a long list of inventive local Makers from 10:00am-3:00pm this March 14th. That’ll leave you plenty of time to make “pi” foods, write a pi-ku, or do whatever you need to do to make your Pi Day complete.
Thanks to the good folks at Delft University of Technology for baking, photographing, and public domain’ing the delicious-looking Pi Day creation pictured above.
More info on Make: Day at www.smm.org/makeday
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