March 14 – Pi Day of the Century! (and a birthday) ~ CookingFood.Org

Posted on March 14, 2015

I love pi (and pie), so I LOVE Pi Day. Still, I've talked about it before (most notably here - scroll down - and here), so I was thinking “been there, done that” –

BUT!

Then I realized that THIS year, Pi Day wasn't just Pi Day—it's Pi Day of the Century!

You see, pi, which is the ratio between the circumference to the diameter of a circle, is an irrational number that goes on and on and on and on...

Pi starts 3.14... (and then goes on forever, never repeating itself), and so we celebrate Pi Day on 3/14 (March 14).

But today we get this:

3.141592653 = 3/14/15 at 9:26:53 in the morning!

So get ready to celebrate Pi Minute at 9:26 A.M. today, and Pi Second at the 53-second mark!

How do you get ready?

Make a Pi Day of the Century shirt.
Make (or buy) and eat some pie.
Be ready to talk about the wonders of irrational numbers that go on forever!
You can also join a Pi Day Facebook group!

Also, happy birthday, Akira Yoshizawa, grandmaster of origami!

Born in Japan on this date in 1911, Akira Yoshizawa is credited with raising origami from a craft to an art. He made more than 50,000 origami creations—and only a few hundred are explained with diagrams in his 18 books on origami. Most are unexplained, unique creations—although of course some people try and even succeed at copying them.

Who would even think of a self-portrait
in origami?

Origami by Brian Chan

One thing I noticed about Yoshizawa's work is that much of it is very simple. I love complicated, detailed origami, such as Brian Chan's amazing insects. But there is something so beautiful and satisfying with some of these seemingly simple pieces.