THIS IS THE PI DAY OF THE CENTURY!
Further, as the clock ticked on this morning we dove even further into the sequencing of PI and the world was locked for just a second into 3.141592653. Ah, ten glorious digits of PI to experience.
The ancients already knew that a circle was allows a little over 3 times as large 
as it’s diameter – I’m talking like 4000 years ago (think Babylonians and Egyptians). Well before you sat at your school desk taking notes in math class scratching out that ever-so-memorized and never-ending-nor-repeating decimal of pi. And they knew this to be be true, always.
Now, this doesn’t really seem like a huge deal to us modern-tech-types of people. But it really was. Just think of how odd is really is that all circles, no matter their size held this basic principle in common. This doesn’t just effect our prowess at math or scent. As our understanding and precision to calculate Pi has grown – our understand of life itself. PI has become a foundation to a better understanding of our world as we seek to know and measure the very world and universe around us. Let’s take a peek at it inside the Fourier series.
This formula is a written and function representation of any process that occurs in repetition. From your own heartbeat to the Earth’s orbit around the sun.
“Probably no symbol in mathematics has evoked as much mystery, romanticism, misconception and human intreats as the number Pi.” – William L. Shaaf
Taking a step away from PI as a fundamental basis of math, science and architecture, PI even seems to have a tickling reference to God. “Also he made a molten sea of ten cubits from brim to brim, round in compass, and five cubits the height thereof; and a line of thirty cubits did compass it round about.” – Kings 7:23
Are you yawning?…
… Well the point is that PI is very special and has been for a super long time.
So let’s begin our celebration of PI day, which is arguably a very American thing to do. Here in the States we read our calendars by month, day and then year. Which means that are are uniquely situated to celebrate today.
By now I’ve hope you’ve drawn the same conclusion as many when contemplating how to celebrate PI Day – why yes of course by eating pie! Not only is this confectioner’s delight an actual working prototype of PI (after all it is a circle), but it phonetically sounds the same too!
Allow me to introduce baker Brandon Welsh. He’s a baker at Dangerously Delicious Pies in Caton, Baltimore.
“People have been making, and putting all kinds of things into pies. Did you know that it was only relatively recently that we began to eat the crusts of pies? Coal miners in England used the crust to keep the contents warm and to keep the coal dust off. The crusts were thick and hard for that purpose.”
Having sampled a delicious pie of Mr. Welsh, I can personally attest to the perfectly delectable and very eatable crust on my slice of Chicken Pot Pie.
“The crust of pie is a 3-to-1 ratio, of flour and shortening. It’s artistic, what you put in the pie could make it pedestrian or amazing.”
When asked whether he thought that pie was inherently American, or did he find that it was more universal Welsh responded –
“Tons of different people have been putting lots of different things into pie. Of course there is the equidistant American apple pie. I can crush and apple pie, and it’s my favorite.”
Welsh and all those of Dangerously Delicious Pies were well aware of the impending PI Day. He even knew of the extra sequencing that was to occur in the morning. They were bracing for a large crowd, and in fact, had already booked reservations for 20 (this was a full week out). “If it’s anything like last year, we are going to be packed.”
A HUGE thanks for Brandon Welsh for sharing a little time away from his pies to chat. Whether you are a mathematician or a baker PI can be found everywhere in our daily lives. I feel I speak for many when I suggest that perhaps pie should be a part of our routines as well. Have a wonderful (and I hope delicious) PI Day!
