Quantcast
Channel: PBS NewsHour » Topics » Science
Viewing all articles
Browse latest Browse all 1463

Find your slice of birthday in pi

$
0
0

It's National Pi Day. Celebrate with a pie and a quiz: How many digits of the mathematical constant can you name? Photo by Bill Pugliano/Getty Images

Pi is for everyone. Chances are your birthday digits are hidden in the mathematical constant. Photo by Bill Pugliano/Getty Images

The mathematical constant pi fascinates even the most advanced mathematicians.

Because it is an irrational number, pi is infinite and never falls into a repeating pattern. Despite its use in mathematics for centuries, research is still being done on pi to determine whether the numbers repeat in a certain frequency.

While calculating a few digits of pi can be done by hand, its calculation into the millions is used as a performance test for computers. So far, supercomputers have been able to compute pi to 12 trillion digits. Chances are, your birthday combination is in there somewhere.

Find out below.


How It Works

The month, day and year of your birthday is combined into one number, so a birthday of March 14, 1915 becomes 31415. Then, through a search of our database of 4.2 million digits of pi, we’re able to determine the position of the first appearance of 31415.

Have another helping of pi: Play our quiz to see how well you know the irrational number.

The post Find your slice of birthday in pi appeared first on PBS NewsHour.


Viewing all articles
Browse latest Browse all 1463

Trending Articles