Get out your best recipes for pie because National “Pi Day” will be here soon. Admittedly, it’s not really about the pies we like to eat, but rather the irrational number known as “pi” and often approximated as 3.14 Its yearly celebration is always on March 14 which is 3/14 in the month/day date format, with 3, 1, and 4 being the first digits in its never-ending non-patterned decimal form.

One of the first Pi Day celebrations, at the San Francisco Exploratorium in 1988, ballooned into widespread fun and recognition to make the day what it has become today, which does include eating pies.

Pi. We learned about it when we were in school. Doesn’t it have something to do with circles? More precisely, it is the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter. The beauty of it is that whenever we divide the circumference of a circle by its diameter, we always get pi, no matter the size of the circle. Knowing this, different formulas can be used in relation to circles such as finding the circumference by multiplying the diameter by pi or finding its area by multiplying pi by the radius squared. Much more than mathematical exercises or useless “mumbo-jumbo,” pi helps us figure how things are related to anything with circles, arcs, cylinders, and spheres, which by the way, are everywhere.

Pi is certainly nothing new. A true “yesterdays” topic, there is evidence that civilizations discovered it at least 4000 years ago in the time of the Babylonians. Other civilizations also apparently had some knowledge of the concept. People figured out that the distance around a circular object (circumference) was a bit more than 3 times its diameter, the line segment that passes through the center of the circle.

Pi also appears in the Old Testament in 2 Chronicles 4:2 and 1 Kings 7:32 with a description of a circular ceremonial pool (font) in Solomon’s temple.

“Also he made a molten sea of ten cubits from brim to brim and a line of thirty cubits did compass it round about.”

Taken in full context with detailed descriptions of building specifications, contemporary mathematicians have calculated that the craftsmen had a precise working knowledge of pi.

Some would say that this was divinely inspired when you consider that Solomon’s Temple was the sacred place to permanently hold the “Ark of the Covenant,” the holy chest constructed in the time of Moses that held, among other things, the Tablets of Stone on which the Ten Commandments were inscribed.

Throughout the ages, many deep thinkers have attempted to more closely estimate the value of pi beyond the first few decimals, and it was in the early 1700s that the use of the Greek letter first appeared as a convenient mathematical symbol to represent it. Of course, the more decimals used, the closer the approximation.

According to “Scientific American,” a monthly magazine, if we use 3.0 without the decimals, our measurements are off by about 4.51 percent, which in many cases is not a concern. One practical application of this in “real” life was when I had to calculate how much edging I needed to go around a circular blanket. After measuring its diameter, I multiplied by 3.0. I then purchased enough packages of edging to accomodate the circumference. (I had some left over.) However, it would have been prudent of me to use some decimals if the edging had been more expensive and it was cut by the inch.

A more accurate representation of pi is also wise when dealing with larger distance because as the magazine points out, if the diameter of the circle were 100 feet, we would be off by a little over 14 feet. Using 3.1 for pi, the error is only 1.3 percent. The approximation of 3.14 is less of an error at about half of a percent from the true value. The typical value used of 3.14159 is within 0.000084 percent necessary for science, but certainly not for blankets.

Basic geometry is one thing, but those in mathematical and scientific fields know that the “constant” of pi is evident in countless ways in the world around us, particularly in physics. “Scientific American” cited that calculations using pi are used for the Space Global Positioning Systems (16 digits) as well as a program that stabilizes spacecraft during missions. Pi is part of the equation that measures the electromagnetic force involving how electrons interact with photons and the “permeability of free space.” It has been used to calculate the movements of the planets and stars. It is present in mechanical and electromagnetic waves such as sound and light. It’s used in the television and radio signals sent to our homes. Pi even shows up in rivers. If we take the straight distance between the endpoints of a river (as the crow flies) and multiply by pi, the result is the actual length of the river. A straight line of 1000 miles might actually have water that has gone 3,142 miles through its curves and loops.

Time, space, substance, and our existence and place in the universe are the abstract concepts that make up the branch of philosophy called metaphysics. Lo and behold, the relationships of pi are there too. Some people theorize, as stated in an article “Welcome to Pi Day,” that attempting to understand pi is a look into the mind of the creator of the universe. Observations and discoveries of both the beautiful and complex workings of our universe certainly point to a Divine Creator. People inherently know this.

If you ever decide to celebrate pi day, be sure to do so this year. It will be exceptional because 3.141592653, or the first ten digits, coincide with the date and time on March 14, in the year ’15 at 9:26 and 53 seconds. Some might say it is 54 seconds if you round the 53 up to 54 because the following digit is a 5, but either way, it’s one of those rare and once in a lifetime events.

Make it a good week, and if people in math circles (pun by coincidence) choose to eat pies, then so can we. They all taste good, from chicken pot pies to berry and everything in between. That part is as “easy as pie.”

Photo Caption(s): A formula using pi can be used to find out how much edging is needed to finish a circular blanket.