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Pi has been studied by the human race for almost 4,000 years. By 2000 B.C., Babylonians established the constant circle ratio as 3-1/8 or 3.125. The ancient Egyptians arrived at a slightly different value of 3-1/7 or 3.143.
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The record for reciting the most number of decimal places of pi was achieved by Rajveer Meena at VIT University on March 21, 2015. He was able to recite 70,000 decimal places. To maintain the sanctity of the record, Rajveer wore a blindfold throughout the duration of his recall, which took an astonishing 10 hours! Can’t believe it? Here is his proof.
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Just last year in 2021, a team of Swiss researchers at the University of Applied Sciences calculated pi to a record-breaking 62.8 trillion figures in total. Using a high performance computer the challenge took 108 days and 9 hours to complete.
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At the 762nd decimal place of pi there is a sequence of six 9s. Those six 9s are named the Feynman Point, after a physicist who joked that he would learn pi to this point and end with "999999 and so on" in an attempt to imply that pi is rational.
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The first National Pi Day was observed in 1988 by American artist and physicist Larry Shaw in San Francisco who marked the occasion with fruit pies. Larry led Pi Day parades every year until his passing in 2017.
If celebrating Pi Day isn’t for you, there are people who prefer to recognize Tau Day on 6/28. Not only do they believe that tau is the more accurate way to find the circumference of a circle, but they encourage Tau Day fans to eat twice as much pi(e) to celebrate!