Happy Pi Day!

I always like celebrating Pi Day each March 14 because so few other people do so. It is like celebrating The Festivus for the Rest-of-Us around the end of the year! In any case, it is the only pseudo-holiday devoted entirely to the recognition of mathematics, or at least one small yet pervasive mathematical principle.

Here are a few factoids to help you observe this important day:

• Pi, the ratio of circumference to diameter of a circle, has captivated imaginations for thousands of years.
• Pi Day falls on March 14, which is also Albert Einstein's birthday.
• The U.S. House of Representatives passed a resolution supporting Pi Day in March 2009.
• The record for calculation is 2.7 trillion digits (by Fabrice Bellard, December 2009).
• Record for memorization: 67,890 digits (by Chao Lu, 2005). See the inset video for a demonstration by the U.S. nation record holder at 15,314 digits.
• There are no occurrences of the sequence 123456 in the first million digits of pi.

So what you are you doing this fine Pi Day 2010?