Pi Day: Celebrating the number that stole the world.

Quite possibly the most famous number around doesn’t even look like a number. Its name, yes, it has a name, is Pi.

Why is Pi so important?

Pi is what we call an irrational number. It goes on forever. Scientists have calculated it to billions of digits, but it still keeps on going. And there isn’t a pattern either. It isn’t like repeating decimals like 0.636363636363 that continues ad infinitum.

With Pi, it has every combination of any numbers ever possible. It is infinitely long and infinitely random. Contained in Pi is the image of every photograph ever taken along with every photograph that will ever be taken in the future. It contains the works of Shakespeare and the music of Beethoven. Within it is written a book of a history that has yet to happen. The pattern of your DNA is in Pi, and so is mine.

Everything is in Pi. That’s why Pi is so special.

Where can you find Pi?

Everywhere. Everything is in Pi, and Pi is everywhere. Pi got its start defining the circumference of a circle. That means Pi is in our Sun, in our helical DNA, in our coffee cups, and our car’s wheels. It’s in our eyes, and in our blood – literally.

It is everywhere in the natural world, and everywhere in our scientific world. Pi defines how well we can know the position and the speed of a passing object. It even determines how rivers choose their paths.