It’s generally overshadowed by St. Patrick’s Day, but folks who are more geeky than green celebrate Pi Day on March 14 of every year … it’s 3.14, you know.
I never considered myself much of a mathlete, though math was one of my strong points in high school, where I took every course offered. I was good with a slide rule and won the senior math award — but our highest level course was “Advanced Algebra and Trigonometry,” and none of my teachers ever mentioned anything so basic to calculus as a function: f(x)=2x would have been a mystery to me.
My grades, however, landed me in a calculus course when I got to college. I struggled more there, but derivatives made sense, and I did OK until we got to imaginary numbers. I couldn’t imagine them. I just couldn’t.
But pi I could understand. Even though it’s not a rational number, I could visualize the ratio between a circle’s circumference and its diameter. I could memorize pi‘s value to eight or ten decimal places. I could work with it.
Pi is sometimes referrred to as a “mathmatical constant,” and something about me likes that. In a world marked by change and uncertainty, pi is as dependable as the love of God, and perhaps a fitting reminder.
Happy Pi Day, everybody.
Professor of Old Testament at Campbell University Divinity School in Buies Creek, North Carolina, and the Contributing Editor and Curriculum Writer at Good Faith Media.
