Friday, March 14, 2014

Happy Pi Day

[This is a re-post of a post from two years ago on, you guessed it, March 14.]

This morning my brother (an engineering nerd, let it be known) emailed to wish me "Happy Pi Day."

Pi, as you know, is the mathematical ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter.

While pi is a constant, it's also infinite.


My kids get a kick out of listening to The Pi Song.

For convenience pi is usually shortened to 3.14, hence Pi Day -- March 14 -- get it? Get it?

Yeah I know, that's what I get for growing up in a family of nerds...

UPDATE: Reader Rob sent me this photo of a pi pie. He said, "Hmmm, looks like raspberry... There's a nerd joke in that..."

Not sure what the nerd joke might be, so if anyone knows, feel free to elucidate.


  1. Next year will be 3.14/15 day!!!

  2. I'm already scheduling the party for next year. To commence (of course) at 9:26:53. :)

  3. Wait!

    If you really want to get nerdy, take pi as 3.14159265358979. Subtract 3 as the month of March. Then multiply the remaining fraction by 31 days in the month to get the 4th day. Subtract the 4 and multiply the remainder by 24 hours to get 9am. Subtract the 9 and multiply by 60 minutes to get 20. Subtract the 20 and multiply by 60 seconds to get 41.76 seconds.

    Therefore, Pi Day begins on Mar 4 @ 9:20:41.8 AM. You're 10 days late!

  4. In honor of Pie day today, I am going to bake myself a birthday cake. Banana with cream cheese frosting sprinkled with Pecan nuts. I never knew I was born on Pi day. Is this why I am a

  5. Pi is wrong!!!!

    In the family of nerd one-upmanship; take a look at the Tau Manifesto.

    and the cute song that gives you hope more girls are involved in math:

  6. Think I'll bake a nice peach pi.

    Wish there were more families of nerds out there.

  7. There are credit card sized computers made in the UK called raspberry pi :)

  8. know, pbbbbtt as in big deal.

  9. I love pi, it happens to be my birthday.

  10. The pie nerd joke likely references the Raspberry Pi computer project. More info here:
    Ps. I really enjoy your blog. My wife and I vacationed in northern Idaho for our 20th anniversary last year. I wish we could have stayed!

  11. Installed full Fedora on a Raspberry Pi. Works nicely. Don't plan on biting into it, though.

  12. Installed full Fedora on a Raspberry Pi. Works nicely. Don't plan on biting into it though.