On March 14, the world celebrated Pi Day. However, many people were/ are oblivious to this occasion. Pi Day is celebrated on March 14 every year for it represents 3 for March and 14 for the date, which gives the value of Pi (3.14). So it is celebrated as one of the important days by people who are related to the fields of science and mathematics.

Pi is a Greek letter denoted by the symbol “π”.In mathematics, Pi represents the ratio of the circumference to the diameter of a circle, whose values is always 3.14.

So, are there any other events related to Pi Day or March 14 (3/14)?

The most important and notable event is the birth of Albert Einstein, a German-born theoretical physicist who developed the theory of relativity, one of the two pillars of modern physics (alongside quantum mechanics. He changed the perception of the way people and the science think about the pair of things like distance and time, mass and energy.

Another memorable incident this Pi Day was death of Stephen Hawking, an English theoretical physicist, cosmologist, author and director of Research at the Centre for Theoretical Cosmology within the University of Cambridge. He was diagnosed with a rare form of motor neurone disease at the age of 22. He was given only a few years to live after being diagnosed. He died at the age of 76. He was famed for his work with black holes and relativity. He wrote several popular science books including “A Brief History of Time”.

It is interesting how a normal date such as March 14 is associated with the great minds of modern times. Pi, as a matter of fact, has been part of human knowledge for centuries. The first calculation of pi as 3.14 is attributed to Greek mathematician Archimedes, who lived in the third century BC.

The Pi Day celebration, however, was first introduced by physicist Larry Shaw when he organised a programme in 1988 at the San Francisco Exploratorium science museum to commemorate the humble Greek letter “π”. It was Shaw who chose March 14 or 3.14—the first three digits of pi. Shaw died last year.

So how many numbers are there in pi? The current record was set last year by physicist Peter Trueb, who calculated pi to 22.4 trillion digits — 22,459,157,718,361. The previous record set in 2013 was 9 million digits. Fascinating indeed! Next time you can celebrate Pi Day with a piece of pie.