Fans of math and dessert are looking forward to Saturday

Math enthusiasts and dessert lovers prepare to mark a once-in-a-century date Saturday

An annual Pi Day celebration occurs March 14, but this year has math enthusiasts -- and pie lovers -- more excited than usual.

The date will correspond not just to pi's repeating decimal number's first three digits -- 3.14 -- but two more decimal places: 3.1415.

The correspondence won't happen again for another 100 years.

Some will take the excitement to another level Saturday by celebrating at 9:26:53 a.m., adding five more decimal places.

Pi, or π, is the symbol used in mathematics to represent a constant -- the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter -- which is about 3.14159.

As an irrational and transcendental number, Pi continues infinitely without repetition or pattern.

Tracy Lohmeier, a math teacher at Cape Girardeau Central High School, said all students will have an opportunity to participate in two events Friday that celebrate Pi Day.

The first activity will take place during lunch. Students will memorize and recite as many digits of pi as possible.

Last year, one student recited more than 150.

"It's not necessarily your top math students," Lohmeier said. "Even the freshmen and some of the students who may find math challenging really rose to the occasion the last time we did this."

Students can dress up as their favorite mathematician or scientist -- from history or modern day. They even can dress like their favorite math teacher at the high school.

"We want every student in the building to feel like he or she can participate in some way, shape or form," she said, whether the student wears a loud-patterned coat, a nerdy pair of glasses or an Albert Einstein wig.

Lohmeier said she thinks it's the mystery of pi that can fascinate people.

No matter how large or how small the circle is, she said, the ratio of the circumference to its diameter is always the same.

"I think it's almost the art of mathematics," she said. "That's the way I explain it to my students, and that gets them excited."

At the Scott City School District on Thursday, students will celebrate Pi Day by ordering pizza, bringing pie and other circular foods and measuring the area and circumference.

Vicki Helderman, a high-school math teacher, said her students ask early in the year whether they'll celebrate Pi Day.

"Being able to do some of these fun things with math makes it seem a little less intimidating," she said.

Some local businesses known for their pies are celebrating, too.

Tina Abbott, owner of Cup 'N' Cork, 11 S. Spanish St. in Cape Girardeau, said the business has celebrated Pi Day the past three years.

But this Saturday will be its biggest event so far.

"We're having a huge Pi Day," she said. "We are going to be serving five different kinds of homemade pies, and if you come in and you buy a slice of pie, your name gets put in a drawing. Then, at 9:26 that night, we'll give away a full pie."

Abbott said because the date correspondence won't happen again for another 100 years, she wants to make a big deal out of it.

"And because I'm not going to be selling pie in 100 years," Abbott added with a laugh.

Sharon Penrod, owner of the Pie Safe Bakery and Cafe at 146 Pocahontas Main St. in Pocahontas, said she'll sell square pieces of blackberry, peach and cherry pie for $3.14.

That price also includes ice cream and a beverage.

To find the area of a circle, pi is multiplied by the radius squared -- or pi "R" squared. That formula lead to the joke, "Pies aren't square; they're round."

But Saturday at the Pie Safe, Penrod said, "Pie are squared."

klamb@semissourian.com

388-3639