It's Pi Day 2017, a time to marvel at the number and celebrate Albert Einstein's birthday
Albert Einstein (Picture: Getty)

Today is both Pi Day and Albert Einstein’s birthday – so it really is a huge occasion in the calendar for maths and science nerds everywhere.

The two events are actually unrelated with Pi Day celebrated today as it is 3/14 (if you write dates like an American) and 3.14 are the first three significant digits of Pi.

Happy international Pi Day! Here’s what it looks like to 100,000 decimal points

It just so happens that the great physicist was born in Ulm, Germany on this date in 1879, to make this one of the most cerebral days of the year.

The first Pi Day happened is thought to have been marked in 1988, organised by Larry Shaw at the San Francisco Exploratorium – involving a lot of people eating fruit pies.

Of course, Pi Day has nothing to do with pies, but people really do love those pastry-surrounded treats, so many use it as an excuse to indulge.

Why is π the symbol for Pi?

π – the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter – was first used by Welsh mathematician Gareth Ffowc Roberts in 1706.
Jones realised Pi never ended and could not be expressed precisely, which is why the symbol for Pi was created.
It is thought Pi is called as so as it denotes a ‘periphery’ or ‘perimeter’.

Most, however, just choose to marvel at the glorious number and all its complexities.

Whatever your feelings on the number, it is well worth saying Happy Birthday to Albert today.


His achievements are too varied and extensive to list here, but you will probably know him best as a Nobel Prize winning physicist and for ‘the world’s most famous equation’ E = mc2.

For more information on the great man, have a look here.

Albert Einstein (1879-1955) physicien americain d'origine allemande auteur de la theorie de la relativite gravitation physician tirant la langue, la photo a ete prise le 14 mars 1951 elle a ete distribuee pour les 72 ans d'A. Einstein -- Albert Einstein (1879-1955) american physicist (german born) sticking his tongue out, the picture was taken on march 14, 1951 and distributed for his 72nd birthday
Happy birthday Albert! (Picture: Getty)

Next month National Geographic will be airing a new documentary series based on the life of Albert Einstein. Genius starts Sunday 23rd April at 9pm on National Geographic.

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