14 March is Pi Day, also called International Mathematics Day. This tradition was originally started in 1988 by a physicist at the San Francisco Exploratorium.
It began with the simple request to celebrate Pi, and eat some Pie, however in later years, Pi day has started to also be used as a time to comment on the true beauty of Mathematics.
Pi Day is also the Birthday of Albert Einstein. This wasn’t an intentional choice, but instead, American Mathematicians wanted to celebrate Pi on a day that looked similar to it in their date system, like the 14th of March, which looks like 3/14 in the MM/DD/YY system. This format means that there is an “ultimate Pi Day” every century, where the calendar reads that it is 3/14/15, like in 2015.
Today, make sure to celebrate Einstein’s Birthday with a fresh Pie! You can find out more about Pi in our Mathsounds podcast.