Fun Fact Fiesta Logo

Discover the Magic of Mathematics: Top 12 Fun Facts About Pi You Never Knew!

illustration of pi
Embark on a deliciously irrational journey as we explore the fascinating world of Pi, the mathematical constant that keeps circles in shape and puts the "fun" in "fun facts".

1. Pi Magician

Pi's got more surprises up its infinite sleeves than a magician at a geometry convention: it's just one of many irrational numbers that can't be represented as a terminating or repeating decimal, but it's easily the most famous for being the key to unlocking the bewitching beauty of circles!
Source => livescience.com

2. Cosmic Pi

Feeling a little irrational, like our numerically endless friend Pi? Well, curl up in your favorite circle and indulge in a slice of tantalizing trivia: Pi has been calculated to a whopping 31 trillion digits after the decimal point, yet we only need the first 39 digits of this cosmic constant to accurately gauge the circumference of the known universe – that's right, folks, down to the very width of a single atom!
Source => makezine.com

3. Counting Pi-nite

Forget counting sheep to fall asleep – try counting the digits in Pi instead, and you might just find yourself lost in the never-ending numerical chaos: Pi, an irrational number, boasts over 22 trillion calculated digits, with the record set in 2020, but funnily enough, a mere 39 of those digits are sufficient to calculate the circumference of any circle within our observable universe!
Source => forbes.com

4. Infinite Pi Buffet

Get ready to feast on this never-ending buffet of digits, as math enthusiasts whip out their geeky spoons and dig into this irrational pie: Pi has been calculated to over 50 trillion digits, making it infinitely challenging and an enigma that transcends our understanding – all while sparking worldwide indulgence on that tastiest of days, March 14th (also known as Pi Day) with pies and mathematical merriment galore!
Source => piday.org

Pilish Writing Adventure

5. Pilish Writing Adventure

In a world where π-rates sail the seas of irrationality, hoarding hidden treasures of infinite digits, a daring crew of word wizards craft sentences of numerical beauty: Behold, Pilish! A style of writing in which the lengths of consecutive words match the intricate digits of our beloved pi, leading to creations from simple verses to record-holding, 10,000-digit novels, all whilst navigating the perilous zeroes with Basic and Standard Pilish rule sets. Yet, don't be fooled - for Pilish can't be spoken, but merely marveled upon by π-thusiasts across the globe!
Source => en.wikipedia.org

6. Fun with Pi Memorization

Talk about a piece of the π action: Rajveer Meena, a 21-year-old student from India, now holds the Guinness World Record for memorizing the most post-decimal digits of pi, reciting a whopping 70,000 digits in 9 hours and 27 minutes while blindfolded!
Source => thehindu.com

7. Raspberry "Pee"

When life gives you raspberries, make raspberry pee: The Greek letter "π" is actually pronounced like "pee" instead of "pie", making the Raspberry Pi platform's name reminiscent of a certain bodily fluid - but that hasn't stopped it from becoming a beloved credit card-sized computer.
Source => forums.raspberrypi.com

8. Pi Party Cryptography

Who says mathematicians can't party? Pi, that irrational life of the digit party, makes cryptographers feel dizzy too: The US National Security Agency once listed "pi-based cryptography" as one of the most challenging cryptanalytic conundrums in the 1990s, due to its unpredictable and endless decimal dance that's perfect for generating encryption keys.
Source => washingtonpost.com

9. Biological Pi Patterns

Whoever said zebras and leopards were bad at math obviously never met Pi: This nifty number isn't just good for making geometric constants fantastic, it actually governs biological patterns like stripes and spots, as well as periodic processes from circadian rhythms to heartbeats and cell division timing!
Source => biophysics.org

Transcendental Pi Dessert

10. Transcendental Pi Dessert

Pi, the scrumptious mathematical dessert: Not just the darling of geometry and the tantalizing topic of trivia nights, it's also a transcendental number, meaning it resists being pinned down as the root of any algebraic equation involving whole numbers and arithmetic operations. Surprise, surprise, this mischief-maker puts paid to the dreams of squaring a circle with nothing but a compass and a straightedge!
Source => en.wikipedia.org

11. Geometry Twister

Before Archimedes and Zu Chongzhi laid the pie on the table, they played geometry Twister to bake it just right: Using polygons inscribed and circumscribed around circles, they approximated the area of a circle, while Zu Chongzhi whipped up the ratio of circumference to diameter using a 24,576-sided party tray, helping them inch closer to the true value of the π-ful dessert that would be later crowned with the Greek letter pi and refined by future mathematical master chefs.
Source => exploratorium.edu

12. NeverEnding Pi Story

Feeling as infinite as pi's decimals after watching The NeverEnding Story for the gazillionth time? Hold your falcor, math fans: If pi is indeed a normal number, which it's believed to be, every possible sequence of digits appears infinitely many times, making it a rollercoaster ride through numeracy not meant for faint-hearted memorizers!
Source => math.stackexchange.com

Related Fun Facts