Do you remember the formula our math teachers drilled into our heads for the area of a circle?
A = π r2 *But pies are round, not square!
And do you remember this one, for the circumference of a circle?
C = 2 π r (Yes --two pies are better than one!)
But how many of us remember the value of π (Pi)? Oh, I don't mean 3, or 22/7 or even 3.14 (two decimals places). I'm talking about the long version, say ten places!
Well, for your private & personal Knowledge Base, here it is:
π = 3.1415926535
What does this have to do with today's Event, you might ask? Well, folks, let me fill you in on why the world's geeks, at least, are celebrating this monumental once-in-a-century occurrence!
If you take all eleven digits in the extended value above for one of our favorite numbers, you can start with the first five to see something very familiar. 3-1-4-1-5 gives us a five digit combo that works for today's date, 3/14/15. Of course, this only works once every 100 years!
How do the rest of the digits enter in? The remaining digits give us 9-2-6-5-3-5, and we used those to decide on the time for our Event, as did many other geocachers all around the world. Shortly after most of you arrive, precisely at 9:26:53 pm GMT (3:26:53 CST), we can celebrate Ultra Pi Day with the rest of the world.