Today is Pi Day, 3.14 as we write the date in the United States.
Pi Day, March 14, is a day to celebrate mathematics. In the American method of day
numbering, today is 3-14: March 14. Or, the first three digits of the
mathematical value "Pi". 3.14.
It also would have been Albert Einstein's birthday. (March 14, 1879). 145 years ago today.
Pi Day honors the number representing the ratio
of the circumference of a circle to its radius. Pi is an infinite
number: it goes on indefinitely, but, not only that, it is a non
repeating decimal. And it is always a constant - each and every circle, no matter its size, has that same ratio.
That ratio had been calculated by ancient mathematicians with good accuracy. With our supercomputers, we've computed Pi out to over 62.8 trillion digits (it may be more now). Try memorizing that. Some people have. I've read that the record for memorizing the value of Pi is around 70,000. digits.
In the United States, Pi Day has become an unofficial celebration of all things circular, especially pies and pizzas. Pizza parlors and bakeries run specials.
Today, we are not going to bake any pies, but I'm thinking of some pies of my spouse's youth.
My late mother in law used to make two types of pies for Easter - what she
called a "grass" pie, and a "pizza rustica". These are both savory
pies. When she was younger, she hand made these. In her older age she bought from bakeries where she used to live near New York City. She traditionally served them for Easter.
The grass pie, may I reassure you, is not made from grass. In Italy, it is known as "torta pasqualina". The green is usually swiss chard.
Easter is coming early this year
and, as rarely happens, doesn't coincide with Passover, so I can
actually eat these savory pies at the Easter table. So I'm trying to talk my spouse into making at least one of these pies. They are work intensive but I'm hoping he will do it.
Of course, he probably remembers the first time we (joint effort) tried to make a Pizza Rustica.
We'll see what happens.
...I'm going to make a grape pie today.
ReplyDeleteWhat I would really like to know, is why in the US, the month is given before the day - surely not just so that you can have Pi Day...
ReplyDeleteDoes logic not suggest Smallest, medium, largest day, month, year? Please enlighten me...
I wish I could, but it seems even the Internet doesn't have a good answer for why we write dates this way in the United States.
DeleteI was taught that the day comes before the week, the week before the month and the month before the year, so I still write 13 March, 2024, and that’s the way I speak too. Interestingly in scientific journals that format is also used.
DeleteAh, Pi Day! Thanks for reminding me. I need to purchase (not really a pie cook) my pie for the day. Hmm...what kind should I get?
ReplyDeleteI have a recipe for a spinach ricotta pie, or tart. I suppose chard would do. I like Swiss chard in an enchilada dish I make. My father and my husband always preferred pies to cake. Maybe I do too, but more labor intensive.
ReplyDeletePie …
ReplyDelete3.14 provides slide-rule accuracy, which is good enough for practically every purpose... We just had a Dutch apple pie, by the way, and it was good...
ReplyDeleteI looked up your recipe for pizza rustica. I think I will cook that using pizza dough as the crust. Grass pie, meh. I'm sure it is good. I've eaten poke salad growing up. I don't know why swiss chard does not sound good to me. Happy Pi Day to you.
ReplyDeleteInteresting day for celebration
ReplyDeleteHappy Pi day! I would have forgotten if not for your post.
ReplyDeleteThe 7th graders two weeks ago noticed that 3/14 was coming up. We had been doing area of circles, so we had been discussing pi a lot. Easter is missing my brother's birthday this year by one day. (He was actually born on Easter.)
ReplyDeleteI think you should eat any kind of pie you want whenever you want.
ReplyDelete