3.14 Reasons to Celebrate Today

“Mum, what’s Pi?”

“3.141 and the rest…”

“No, I know that. But what actually is Pi?”

Ah. The moment every parent dreads: when your default walking Wikipedia mode malfunctions. Normally, I’d fire off a definition faster than you can say “Google it.” But this one deserved a better answer.

Because Pi isn’t just a number.

It’s a story.

A riddle.

A backstage pass to the secret mechanics of the universe.

And today, on March 14th (3/14—get it?), we get to celebrate it. Sure, the American date format is doing all the heavy lifting here, but mathematicians will cling to any excuse to throw a party over a number. So, let’s indulge them.

Here’s why you should, too.

1. Circles are basically running the world.

Look around. If it’s rolling, spinning, or looping, thank a circle.

No circles = no wheels. No wheels = no bicycles, no cars, and—if we’re going full chaos mode—no Spotify loading icon, no pizzas, and no Olympic rings.

Without circles, there’s no Lord of the Rings (Frodo just hikes to Mordor holding a... square?), no basketball hoops, and no glasses to help short-sighted people witness this dystopian, circle-free nightmare.

And before you triangle enthusiasts come for me—yes, triangles are cool—I know structures wouldn’t be the same without them. But without circles, you wouldn’t have cylinders or spheres either. So, sorry, triangles, you lose this round.

How to celebrate:

Take a walk (or your return commute) and count the circles around you.

Street signs. Clock faces. Lights. That cup of coffee keeping you upright.

Once you start, you won’t stop.

2. Pi is hiding in nature like a mathematical Easter egg.

Forget equations on interactive whiteboard—Pi is written into the very fabric of nature. It’s the cosmic signature on everything from waves to galaxies.

It’s in:

• The rise and fall of tides, the patterns of seasons, and the tempo of your heartbeat.
• The curves of planetary orbits, the swirls of hurricanes, and the way light travels through space.
• The twist of DNA, the spiral of sunflower seeds, and—because nature loves being weird—even the meandering paths of rivers. Yes the meander ratio of many natural rivers:

Basically, if something moves, pulses, spirals, or spins—Pi is working behind the scenes like the universe’s unpaid intern.

How to celebrate:

Step outside. Look up, look down, look around.

Marvel at nature.

If you can’t see Pi at work, trust me, it’s there—like gravity, oxygen, or that one missing sock from the laundry: ubiquitous, mysterious, and essential.

3. Archimedes was the original "math guy."

Over 2,000 years ago, before calculators, computers, or even decent coffee, Archimedes sat down and asked a very simple question:

"How do you measure a perfect circle?"

Armed with nothing but his brain and an unhealthy obsession with geometry, he came up with an answer that blew minds for centuries. Using polygons (a lot of them), he pinned down Pi to be between 3.1408 and 3.1429—which is ridiculously precise considering he didn’t even have a proper number system to work with.

Archimedes was like a Minecraft player trying to build a round tower—he broke circles into tiny straight-line blocks. Just like Minecraft’s square blocks can approximate a circle, Archimedes used small straight lines to estimate Pi’s true value. So, if you’ve ever made a round castle in Minecraft, woo hoo, you’ve just recreated an ancient mathematical breakthrough!

His method—called the method of exhaustion (relatable)—became the foundation of calculus, physics, and engineering.

So, if you’ve ever been impressed by space travel, skyscrapers, or WiFi that actually works, thank Archimedes.

How to celebrate:

Be a little bit more Archimedes today.

Ask a question that genuinely makes you curious. Then, go find the answer.

3.14—That little extra bit.

This is the magic dust. The extra decimal place. The fraction that turns the ordinary into the astonishing.

Pi never ends. It never repeats. It keeps going and going, like that one friend who insists on telling one more story at the end of the night.

And that’s what makes it beautiful. It’s endless curiosity, bottled up into a single number.

So today, if you see someone—a friend, a kid, a colleague—asking questions and getting lost in wonder, celebrate that.

Because that is Pi’s real gift to us.

Happy Pi Day.

Nici

P.S.

I won't judge if you celebrate with actual pie. In fact, I encourage it.

If you want these articles delivered straight to your inbox every Friday morning so you can settle down with coffee and snacks, subscribe here —because curiosity, like Pi, should never end.