Students Celebrate Pi Day

On March 14, 2012, students at Parkway North celebrated the constant ratio of the circumference to the diameter of a circle (also known as Pi) by wearing shirts, eating pie, and learning about this mathematical concept.

One freshman wore a Pi shirt and Pi button to show his support. “Pi day is the best time of the year. It’s not every day that you see a very famous pattern of numbers appear on the calendar,” said Ryan Wahidi.

March 14 is considered Pi day since Pi is 3.14…Pi day was first celebrated in 1988 in San Francisco when the staff at the San Francisco Exploratorium celebrated the mathematical concept by marching around one of its circular spaces and eating fruit pie.

“I feel it should get more recognition because it’s awesome. Just wait until 2015 comes along, and then we’ll have 3.1415. It’s going to be great,” said Wahidi.  3.1415 are the first 5 digits of the number Pi.  Since Pi is an irrational number, no one knows the exact number of Pi.

“The math curriculum coordinator (Amy Spears) sent us over a fresh apple pie. It was so yummy. But we definitely should have celebrated Pi day more this year since we were in school,” said math teacher Jennifer Mueller.

Many students belong to the math club Mu Alpha Theta, who celebrated Pi day after school on March 13 by eating lots of pie.  However, some people don’t celebrate Pi day.

“Although I do belong to Mu Alpha Theta, I don’t celebrate Pi day because I don’t see why we should celebrate a number. We don’t have a day celebrating ‘e’,” said senior Robert Rhoades.

“I don’t celebrate Pi day because I’m not that fond of math. I think that if you like math then you can celebrate it, but if you don’t then you don’t have to celebrate it,” said freshman Shreya Goddu.

Whether people decide to celebrate Pi day or not, this famous number deserves some recognition.

– Emily McCarter