Pi culture
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
There is an entire field of humorous yet serious study that involves the use of mnemonic techniques to remember the digits of π, which is known as piphilology. For example, part of the school cheer of MIT is: "Cosine, secant, tangent, sine! 3 point 1 4 1 5 9!" See Pi mnemonics for more examples.
March 14 (3/14) marks Pi Day which is celebrated by many lovers of π. On July 22, Pi Approximation Day is celebrated (22/7 is a popular approximation of π).
Furthermore, many talk of "pi o'clock" [fifteen seconds past fourteen minutes past 3 (3:14:15) is slightly less than pi o'clock]. Others argue that about twenty-three minutes past 3 (3:23) should be counted as pi o'clock, as it is approximately π hours after midnight.
Another example of math-humor is this approximation of π: Take the number "1234", transpose the first two digits and the last two digits, so the number becomes "2143". Divide that number by "two-two" (22, so 2143/22 = 97.40909...). Take the "two-times-twoth root" (so actually the fourth root) of the outcome. The final number is remarkably close to π: 3.14159265. This is actually the principle of 
which was discovered by Srinivasa Ramanujan.
