March 14th is p - day, a day of celebration to honor one of the most famous and interesting numbers of all time. Why March 14?...because the date is 3/14 and the first three digits of p are 3.14! This is a great day to celebrate mathematics in our world.

What is p ? It si the ratio of any circle's circumference to the length of its diameter. Starting with 3.14592653589, the decimal digits of p continue indefinetely without ever repeating a fixed sequence of digits. Mathematicians have been fascinated by p for ages. They are still trying to find the answer to a question that the Greeks were asking 2,500 years ago, "Do the numbers following 3.14159 occur randomly?" As of Dec. 6, 2002, the value of p has been calculated to 1.24 trillion places. The old value of p had only been calculated to 206.158 billion places.

Click on the following websites to access more interesting information about the number p :

Math with Mr. Herte: Pi Day - mathwithmrherte.com/pi_day.htm
Pi Pages on the Internet - joyofpi.com/pilinks.htm
The Ridiculously Enhanced PI Page - www.exploratorium.edu/pi/pi98
Teacher2Teacher - FAQ: Pi Day - mathforum.com/t2t/faq/faq.pi.html