March 14 is the day to celebrate one of the quirkiest holidays out there; Pi Day. That’s right, there’s a holiday in honor of the number π. “Everything today that’s made that is round or requires a calculation involving a circle, sphere or curved surface involves the use of pi,” said Tom Fernsler of the Math Science Educational Resource Center at the University of Delaware.
As you may have guessed, March 14 was selected as Pi Day because it resembles the first three digits in the constant number; 3.14. So how does one celebrate a number? Every year Princeton, NJ holds something in the nature of a Pi Day festival that includes a contest to see who can memorize the most Pi digits. Microsoft stores across the country will be offering a 3.14% discount on Dell laptops. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology used to mark the day by sending out acceptance letters to high school seniors on March 14. On top of that, MIT has a school spirit cheer: “Cosine, secant, tangent, sine 3.14159.”
