By — Frank Bi Frank Bi Leave a comment 0comments Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/science/find-you-birthday-pi Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Find your slice of birthday in pi Science Mar 14, 2014 4:43 PM EDT The mathematical constant pi fascinates even the most advanced mathematicians. Because it is an irrational number, pi is infinite and never falls into a repeating pattern. Despite its use in mathematics for centuries, research is still being done on pi to determine whether the numbers repeat in a certain frequency. While calculating a few digits of pi can be done by hand, its calculation into the millions is used as a performance test for computers. So far, supercomputers have been able to compute pi to 12 trillion digits. Chances are, your birthday combination is in there somewhere. Find out below. How It Works The month, day and year of your birthday is combined into one number, so a birthday of March 14, 1915 becomes 31415. Then, through a search of our database of 4.2 million digits of pi, we’re able to determine the position of the first appearance of 31415. Have another helping of pi: Play our quiz to see how well you know the irrational number. Why do you love math? This Pi Day, we want to hear from math enthusiasts of all ages. Tell us why you’re passionate about numbers, and how you’re celebrating Pi Day by tweeting @NewsHour your photos and answers using #NewsHourAsks. Come Pi Day, your answer may be featured on our website. By — Frank Bi Frank Bi @FrankieBi
The mathematical constant pi fascinates even the most advanced mathematicians. Because it is an irrational number, pi is infinite and never falls into a repeating pattern. Despite its use in mathematics for centuries, research is still being done on pi to determine whether the numbers repeat in a certain frequency. While calculating a few digits of pi can be done by hand, its calculation into the millions is used as a performance test for computers. So far, supercomputers have been able to compute pi to 12 trillion digits. Chances are, your birthday combination is in there somewhere. Find out below. How It Works The month, day and year of your birthday is combined into one number, so a birthday of March 14, 1915 becomes 31415. Then, through a search of our database of 4.2 million digits of pi, we’re able to determine the position of the first appearance of 31415. Have another helping of pi: Play our quiz to see how well you know the irrational number. Why do you love math? This Pi Day, we want to hear from math enthusiasts of all ages. Tell us why you’re passionate about numbers, and how you’re celebrating Pi Day by tweeting @NewsHour your photos and answers using #NewsHourAsks. Come Pi Day, your answer may be featured on our website.