Who Doesn't Love Pi Day?

For every single circle, the distance around the edge, or circumference, is about 3.14 times longer than the distance straight across (the diameter). This constant, known as pi (π), is a mathematically fascinating number that math fans celebrate on March 14 (3/14).

There are many ways to celebrate Pi Day. Here are about 3.14 of them:

Bake pies with the pi symbol on the top crust -- or eat pi-neapple.

Write a pi-ku, a three-line poem with three syllables in the first line, one in the second, and four in the third.

See who can memorize the most digits of pi. The first 12 numbers are 3.14159265358, but the decimals go on infinitely. The official world record is 67,890 digits. To see the first million digits, visit piday.org.

Try this activity that helps explain pi. Find a cylindrical object, such as an oatmeal canister. Wrap string around the outside of the cylinder and cut the string so that it is exactly as long as the cylinder's circumference. Take this circumference string and stretch it, as shown, across the diameter of the cylinder. How many diameters would you be able to cut from the string? The answer should be three and a little piece left over, or π: 3.14.

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