Pi Day: The mathematical constant that never ceases to amaze

What is mathematics? It is only a systematic effort of solving puzzles posted by nature –                                                                                                                            Shakuntala Devi

The science or study of numbers, quantities, or shapes includes a very fascinating number called Pi — which is written as the Greek letter for π. It is the ratio of the circumference of any circle to the diameter of that circle! In decimal form, the value of pi is approximately 3.14. Mathematicians began using the Greek letter π in the 1700s.

On March 14 in 1988, a physicist (Larry Shaw – Prince of π) at the San Francisco Exploratorium held what is thought to be the first official Pi Day celebration, which smartly included the consumption of fruit pies!

Mr Naresh Marwaha, HoD-Mathematics (Secondary Level), Apeejay School, Mahavir Marg, shared some facts

· We can never know the accurate circumference of a circle, as the exact value of Pi can never be calculated. Thus, Pi is a never-ending and never-repeating number.

· Pi Day also coincides with the birth anniversary of great scientist Albert Einstein.

· The first 50 digits in the decimal representation of π are: 3.14159265358979323846264338327950288419716939937510…..

· There is an entire language made from Pi. In 2010, software engineer Michael Keith published a book named Not a Wake in Pi language.

· If you printed out Pi to a billion decimal values, in 12-point font, you’d need a piece of paper that stretched halfway across the United States, from Kansas to New York City.

“The digits of Pi appear random, making them a source for generating keys, passwords, and other secret values crucial for secure communication and data protection. Due to its infinite and non-repeating nature, Pi can also be used in the development of cryptographic algorithms, which will help in improving security against cyberattacks. The theme this year is Math in Everyday Life,” the educator shared.

And why is Pi (π) an irrational number? The answer is simple — it cannot be expressed as a finite fraction and has a non-repeating, infinite decimal expansion. This arises because π represents the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter, a fundamental mathematical constant not definable by simple fractions.

In computing, π’s infinite nature challenges numerical precision but also enables rigorous testing of algorithms and computational limits. Supercomputers calculate trillions of π digits to refine numerical methods and validate hardware performance.

For cryptography, π’s unpredictability and randomness make it useful in generating pseudo-random sequences, crucial for encryption algorithms. However, true cryptographic security relies on non-deterministic randomness rather than deterministic constants like π.