Lawmakers celebrate Pi Day of the century

by Jesse Byrnes - 03/14/15 11:31 AM ET

A bipartisan group of lawmakers touted their infinite love of Pi Day on Saturday, March 14, 2015 — or 3/14/15, the first five numbers of pi — while others invoked the day to eat some baked goods.

Happy 3.1415926 … Day! #pidayofthecentury

— Katherine Clark (@RepKClark) March 14, 2015

Math nerds rejoice! Happy Pi Day! 'Super Pi' day is once-in-a-century experience. #HappyPiDay @YahooNewsDigest

— Jason Chaffetz (@jasoninthehouse) March 14, 2015

It's happening! #PiDay pic.twitter.com/lYAeW0suSQ

— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) March 14, 2015

Happy Pi Day! And yes I chose this room number for that reason. RT if you're feeling irrational today. #PiDay pic.twitter.com/RVrDlWxpLi

— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) March 14, 2015

Some reflected on the importance of education:

How are you celebrating this once in a lifetime #PiDay? Lets remind our students of the of endless wonders of math and science. #STEM

— Joyce Beatty (@RepBeatty) March 14, 2015

Looking for a challenge on this #PiDay? Check out @NASA's Pi in the Sky 2015 problem set http://t.co/fVmgRCQif2 pic.twitter.com/X387KrvyYY

— Bill Foster (@RepBillFoster) March 14, 2015

Wishing a once-in-a-century Happy #PiDay to everyone celebrating 3.1415, and a Happy Bday to a @Princeton genius! pic.twitter.com/LEBujg2Yvh

— Bonnie WatsonColeman (@RepBWColeman) March 14, 2015

Several interpreted the day in more food-oriented terms:

Happy #PiDay2015 .What's your favorite pie? pic.twitter.com/9d4zCZ460n

— RepScottPerry (@RepScottPerry) March 14, 2015

It’s not Table Talk pie from #Worcester, but it’ll do. Happy #PiDay! 3.14 #STEM pic.twitter.com/asE5dXiMhI

— Ed Markey (@SenMarkey) March 14, 2015

Happy Pi Day. It's nerd heaven with plentiful carbohydrates. #UpMyAlley

— Jim Himes (@jahimes) March 14, 2015

Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) invoked Pi Day in a fundraising email Saturday, noting spending from outside groups and 198 Democratic seats in Congress up for election in 2016.

“An irrational person might think we could hold those seats without your grassroots support,” Franken wrote, asking for donations. (The minimum was $5, not $3.14.)

Rep. Jerry McNerney (D-Calif.), the only member of Congress who holds a Ph.D. in mathematics, issued a lengthy statement Friday explaining some of the history of “the most famous number, which represents, among other things, the ratio of the circumference of a circle to the diameter of the circle.”

“Approximately 3.1415926, π has captured the imagination of thinkers since antiquity. The concept was discovered in Ancient Greece, referenced in the Bible, and has been refined over the millennia. π is in a class of numbers, called transcendental numbers, that cannot be expressed as a ratio of two integers or as the root of a polynomial, but has a infinite, non-repeating decimal expression. π pops up all over the place in modern mathematics, so much so that people wonder if it has some sort of mystical property,” McNerney wrote.

Some Indiana state legislators tried in 1897 to pass a bill defining pi as 3.2, he mentioned.

“As a mathematician, I am still embarrassed on their behalf nearly 120 years later,” McNerney said.

Cornell math professor Steven Strogatz discussed the allure of pi in a New Yorker column.

“Why do mathematicians care so much about pi? Is it some kind of weird circle fixation? Hardly. The beauty of pi, in part, is that it puts infinity within reach. Even young children get this. The digits of pi never end and never show a pattern. They go on forever, seemingly at random—except that they can’t possibly be random, because they embody the order inherent in a perfect circle. This tension between order and randomness is one of the most tantalizing aspects of pi,” he wrote.

Tags Pi Pi Day Thomas Massie