March’s Mathematical Holiday: Of Pi, Pies, and Einstein’s ‘tip’

pocket for some change to tip him and came up empty.

of his theor y on how to have a happy life, which he quickly jotted down in German, on a piece of stationer y from the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo.

HOLIDAY HISTORY

By John Copeland

March hosts a number of special days familiar to many of us: St Patrick’s Day, Johnny Appleseed Day, the Spring Equinox and March 14, which is both the birthday of the father of modern physics, Albert Einstein, and also Pi Day, the mathematical constant that featured in some of Einstein’s equations

Humans have been contemplating pi for roughly 4,000 years. At some point, in the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diamefound to be handy for calculating a circle’s area, and humans found it useful in trigonometr y, physics, statistics, cosmolog y, and

As far back as 1900 B.C.E., ancient Baby-ured out that pi was slightly bigger than 22/7 Today, it is commonly taught in schools as 3.14, though enthusiasts can take the number out to as many decimal places as they ’d like. So far, computers have calculated 10 trillion digits OK, maybe that is a little over the top

Not long ago, on another March 14, I happened to be at the Massachusetts Institute of Technolog y ’ s Experimental Study Group. ESG is the oldest of the four freshman learning communities at MIT and over 50 years old In its small group setting, freshman stu- of biolog y, chemistr y, humanities, mathematics, and physics as an alternative to the large lecture classes taken by their mainstream relaxed environment for to learn and socialize A lounge hosts a complete kitchen and food often plays a part in the learning process of ESG.

I was aware of Pi Day, going back to my television series, “Bablylon 5 ” O utside of having pie ser ved at lunch at our studio, I had never before been somewhere that really celebrated Pi Day. On this day, MIT students - ing pi-themed T-shirts or buttons But, the ver y best part of their celebration of pi was to be found in ESG’s kitchen area: pies and ones in the form of pizza pies. and pie people. I am a pie person, cherr y being my favorite, and I can eat a lot of pie and

Your subscription will begin with the first issue after payment received and continue for one year To subscribe, email amberly@ santaynezvalleystar com, visit us online at santaynezvalleystar.com, or fill out the provided form to the right and mail to: PO Box 1594, Solvang, CA 93463 even more pizza. So can 50 or so freshmen. In a short amount of time, there were only empty pie tins spread across the kitchen counters. It was a wonderful celebration, and for me, it resulted in true feeling of satisfaction and happiness consuming my share of pie, and that brings me back to Albert Einstein there is so much more to know about Albert Einstein than just his work. In 1915, Albert Einstein published the theor y of general relativity, which has proven to be one of the best ways to understand the universe, black holes, time expansion, gravitational waves, and other discoveries. theor y wasn’t exactly related to physics, his intellectual wheelhouse, nor was it carefully detailed in a scholarly publication

Einstein was in Tokyo on a lecture tour, and had recently been informed by telegram that he would be receiving the Nobel Prize. W hen a bellboy arrived at Einstein’s door to

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“A calm and modest life brings more happiness than the pursuit of success combined with constant restlessness,” it said

On a second sheet, he wrote, “ W here there’s a will, there’s a way ” to the messenger boy in lieu of a tip, and told him if he was lucky, the notes might become more valuable than a regular tip. His words, comprehension of the universe, were prophetic

$1.56 million, making him one of the world ’ s for $250,000, according to the auction house )

It ’ s interesting that Einstein wrote such a thing, as much of his life was dedicated to arduous, intellectually revolutionar y pursuits.ness ” stand up after all these years? Happi-cess published in 2005, researchers reviewed 225 studies and concluded that happiness more often leads to success rather than the other way around So perhaps it was Einendowed him the happiness to work so diligently and accomplish so much? For myself, enjoying a piece of cherr y pie on March 14, will give me a dose of happiness