The Tastiest Day of the Year: Pi Day

Have you ever heard of Pi Day? You might think this celebration is all about eating pie. But that’s only partly right. Pi Day is really about math!

A pie is a dessert with a filling that is baked inside of a crust or two. These sweet treats can come in many forms, ranging from fruit flavors like cherry and apple to crunchy textures like pecan. Sometimes, pies can even be a main course when they’re filled with meat or savory ingredients.

Any day is a great day to eat pie, but March 14 is a special day. It’s known around the world as Pi Day.

Pi Versus Pie

Pi Day started as a way to celebrate a special number.

Pi is both a letter in the Greek alphabet (π) and a number. The number pi is the result of dividing the circumference of a circle by its diameter. The circumference of a circle is the length of the line that makes up the circle. The diameter of a circle is the straight-line distance from one side of the circle to the other through the center. No matter how big or small of a circle you have, the result of dividing the circumference by the diameter will always be the same — the number pi!

Pi is one of a kind in mathematics. This number goes on for many digits. In fact, it goes on forever! And the numbers never repeat in a permanent pattern.

Because it is so long, many people shorten the number pi to its first three digits. The first three digits of pi are 3.14.

March is the third month of the year. The fourteenth day of March — or 3/14 — is known as Pi Day because the date matches with the first three digits of pi.

Pi Day is the perfect excuse to eat some pie!

Celebrating Pi Day

Brian Phillips is the owner of Mehaffies Pies in Dayton, Ohio. He’s been baking pies for over 30 years! Every year, he’ll make about 5,000 pies to help people celebrate Pi Day.

He says there’s a lot of math that goes into baking pies, which makes them a good match for Pi Day. “You have to get the right mixture and weight of flour and water,” says Phillips. “It needs to be done the same way every time.”

Measuring and understanding how to add the ingredients in the right amounts is crucial in making pies taste great. “It’s important to do the math right and the measurements correct in baking,” Phillips adds.

Pi and pie don’t just sound alike — math is important to both.

More Than Just Math

The idea of pi has been around since Babylon and ancient Egypt. That’s more than 4,000 years ago!

Celebrating Pi Day is a much more recent event. People have been eating pie on Pi Day since the 1980s according to Phillips. He first heard about the event from engineers who use math a lot in their jobs. “Engineers like to eat!” Phillips says. “So why not celebrate Pi Day with a piece of pie?”

These days, it’s not just engineers who look forward to March 14th. Pi Day has become so popular that Phillips says he has a customer that even wants to celebrate June 28th as Double Pi Day.

Baking pies and math go hand-in-hand. Pi Day is a great reason to eat a tasty treat!