Round up some excitement for National Pi Day in Springfield

March is typically known around the United States for St. Patrick’s Day, the Irish-inspired holiday full of shamrocks, shillelaghs and fountains of green beer. But there’s another holiday making the rounds in popularity in recent years — National Pi Day.

Pi Day, celebrated on March 14, revolves around the celebration of the mathematical constant Pi, typically written as 3.14 (hence the date). The number is used to measure the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter. As a constant, no matter the size of the circle, the value of Pi will never change.

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According to the official Pi Day website, the value of Pi has been calculated out to trillions of digits past its decimal point in recent years. Even though taking it out 39 digits is all that’s needed to calculate the size of our entire universe, some math-brained people find fun in the challenge of memorizing the digits out as far as possible.

For the curious, the official Guinness World Record for most digits of Pi recited was set by Rajveer Meena of India in 2015, who memorized 70,000 decimal places. A Japanese man, Akira Haraguchi, holds the unofficial record for reciting 100,000 decimal places back in 2006.

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But you don’t have to enjoy math to celebrate the offbeat holiday. Many people celebrate by going all out with pizza pies, fruit pies, pot pies or any other round food they can conjure up.

Pizza chains and bakeries across the country often offer specials, selling treats to customers for $3.14. In Springfield, Bada Bing! Pizzeria, located at 40 N. Fountain Ave., will give away free 10-inch cheese and pepperoni pizzas until 9 p.m. in exchange for a charitable donation.

Kroger also has a sale on peach or cherry pies for the special price.

A lot of major pizza chains, including Domino’s, Pizza Hut and Papa John’s, also will have special discounts running so you can still celebrate with your own piece of the pie.

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