"Pi Day" - by Jeff Osteen

Jeff Osteen
BRIGHT STORY – Pi Day



What better way to celebrate one of the worlds most important mathematical constants than by baking fresh and delicious, fruit-filled pastries.

Pi Day is a commemoration of the mathematical ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter, celebrated every March 14, since 1988.

This year will be the twentieth annual Pi Day, giving reason for many University of Montana students to make merry.

“It’s really my favorite holiday,” said Jed Nussbaum, a sophomore at UM.

“We’re going to have a BYOP party,” Nussbaum said. “Bring your own pie.”

Pi Day, which first was celebrated at the San Francisco Exploratorium in 1988, by staff and public marching in a circle and eating pies. The holiday has since grown into a nationwide festivity.

“We didn’t actually plan for it, but we sold twice the amount of pies that we normally sell,” said Marco Littig, a co-owner of Bernice’s Bakery in Missoula.

Littig said that he wishes they would have known about the holiday but it worked out well nonetheless.

Gorging oneself with pie isn’t the only way to mark the occasion. Many math aficionados take to memorizing as many digits of the infinite number as possible.

“I can only get it to about twenty digits,” said Tara Ferrell, a UM sophomore.

“But I haven’t been practicing for very long,” said Ferrell.

Daniel Tammet recited the longest string of digits from memory on Pi Day in 2004 by correctly counting through 22,514 numbers.

According to Tammet at an appearance on The Late Show With David Letterman in 2005, it took him only a few weeks to learn the number and over five hours to recite.

“It’s just a laid-back, fun type of holiday,” Ferrell said.

She said that she plans on making a chocolate cream pie as well as a lemon meringue pie, her favorite, to celebrate the occasion.

“It’s not like you need an excuse to eat pie,” Ferrell said. “It’s just a fun, nerdy time to celebrate.”