Albert Einstein, arguably the most famous theoretical physicist to date, was born on March 14, 1879. March 14th also happens to be Pi Day, in honor of π – the ratio of the circumference of any circle to the diameter of that circle. Regardless of the circle’s size, this ratio will always equal Pi, or 3.14 for short. Pi is an irrational number, meaning the decimal form never ends or becomes repetitive in numbers. Here is Pi to just 18 decimal places: 3.141592653589793238. 

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In order to celebrate National Pi Day on March 14th, there are a ton of educational activities you can do in order to explore this ratio further.  

  1. Use the first 20 digits in pi and write a story using the numbers. You will use a 3-letter word then a 1-letter word then a 4-letter word and keep going!
  2. Make a pie, measure it, take the circumference and area, then EAT! 
  3. Make Pi Plates. Glue the Pi symbol into the middle, and color it using ten different colors that coincided with the numbers. Then write the digits of Pi around the outside border as many times as you can! 
  4. Make Pi Bracelets. Take two different colors of beads. One color represents odd numbers and one color represents even numbers. Put together the bracelets based on the 20 numbers of Pi and wear it on your wrist proudly  
  5. Read stories related to Pi Day. “Sir Cumference and the Knights of the Round Table”, a story about the introduction of the circle vocabulary (circumference, diameter, radius, etc.), and “Sir Cumference and the Dragon of Pi”, a story about the discovery of the value of Pi. 
  6. Find objects around the house that are circular in shape and measure the circumference, the diameter and the radius. Find the value of the circumference divided by the diameter, and the circumference divided by the radius. It will be great to see how similar the answers are with the different objects! 
  7. Come up with a song about Pi with 8 facts to the tune of a nursery rhyme.