happy pi day

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Happy Pi Day. I can’t remember many digits anymore. 3.141592653589 blah blah blah.

For some history for all you nerds, pi was discovered almost 4000 years ago. Back then, it was only approximated to roughly 3, with some saying it was 3.125. Over time, approximations became more and more exact. And for you calculus strugglers right now, allow me to bless your eyes.

Is this divergent or convergent??? Answer quickly. Yeah the picture gave away the answer. Of course it converges you silly goose.


However, there's another way to approximate pi. I won’t bother explaining because in truth I’m too lazy, I forgot most of it, and it’s simply not worth our time here. You can read through it if you so desire.


Okay, that was a big tangent. In order to get back on track, what was the reason for “happy Pi day?” Do I really mean to wish you a nice Pi day? Maybe. To some extent, I (like many) am just a people pleaser-ish. I do want people to have a nice day. On the other hand, I said that out of habit. I wouldn’t want to greet my readers with no greeting? If I just say something like “today is Pi day,” it would read more as a journal than anything else. Polite speech functions the same. Even though some may argue that polite speech is unnecessary and wastes time and energy, I would beg to differ. Let’s take a look at a quick example. Imagine you walk into a classroom and tell your classmate, “Give me your notes.” Technically, it works. You got your point clearly across, but now your friend probably wants to tell you to chill out because you sound aggressive. It would’ve been better to say, “Hey what’s up? Could I borrow your notes from yesterday?” They achieve the same purpose, one obviously works better. So why not be polite?


So when I say “Happy Pi Day,” the purpose isn’t really a mathematical celebration. It’s a greeting. And lowkey, Pi Day itself is a pretty good symbol for that idea. Pi is weird. It’s irrational, infinite, and stubbornly refuses to end. However, we are in constant need for it, circles or even non-circles alike. We don’t need to know every digit of Ď€ to make use of it. A rough approximation is good enough.


Communication is similar. Human language isn’t perfectly precise. People use filler words, politeness, jokes, and random tangents (like this one). None of those things are strictly necessary to convey raw information. But they make conversation smoother and more human.


In other words, polite speech is like rounding π to 3.14. Is it exact? Absolutely not. Is it useful? Absolutely yes.


So yes, to all of you, happy Pi Day.

Comments

  1. LANGonardo Da VinciMarch 14, 2026 at 6:44 PM

    I just wanna start by saying happy pi day paul (I really want you to have a happy day; i'm not saying this to be polite)! Anyways, I really liked the way you used pi day as an example of how words are starting to lose significance. I found it really insightful.

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