Pi Day: Celebrating the Math Constant in Science & Dessert

0:00I'm Cory with the story, bringing you the latest from around the world. Math fans and dessert lovers mark Pi Day every March 14th, celebrating the math constant Pi, which is the ratio of a circle circumference, too. Its diameter, roughly 3.14, its digits go on forever without repeating, and its key for figuring out areas, volumes, and more in everyday math. The fun started back in 1988, thanks to Larry Shaw, a physicist at San Francisco's Exploratorium Science Museum. What began as a simple staff party with Pi grew into a major event, drawing crowds who parade around a Pi shrine. Hunters joined the march, each holding a favorite digit of Pi, arriving early to snag their spot. Enthusiasts, like one regular, with a Pi tattoo, lead the way with flags, kicking off at 159 in the afternoon to match Pi's next digits. In space tech, Pi pops up everywhere from plotting spacecraft paths to designing antennas for distant signals.

1:00UCLA professor Arthur DeVoyan says it's in every formula for orbits, propulsion, and even decoding alien-like data from probes like Voyager. Meanwhile, in Biolengineering, UCLA's Dino-Dicarlo uses Pi to model tiny fluid droplets for cell research and quick tests, like a 20-minute line, disease check or hunting cancer-fighting antibodies, its quietly essential and cutting-edge science every day. These stories made possible by our sponsor, see the episode description, headphones in a pillow. Once you try it, it just makes sense. S-O-L-L-I-SOLYPILLOW.COM