Today is March 14, which means that it is National Pi Day. What exactly is Pi Day you may ask?

National Pi Day happens every year on March 14, or 3.14, to signify the first three digits in the greek letter “π”, or Pi. For those of you who haven’t worked with geometry in awhile, at it’s basics Pi is the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter, allowing us to determine the area of a circle, the volume of a cylinder, as well as many other important formulas that you can ask your friends who are studying math or physics about.

The first major celebration of Pi day happened 30 years ago in 1988, when physicist Larry Shaw organized the event at the San Francisco Exploratorium, where staff and the public marching around the Exploratorium’s Pi Shrine, finishing up the event properly, by eating fruit pies. On top of this, Congress officially recognized Pi Day in 2009, and the famed theoretical physicist Albert Einstein’s birthday.

Due to the significance of Pi, many different scientific organizations around the United States try to celebrate the day in different ways, including eating pizza or pie, throwing pies, and even the Massachusetts Institute of Technology being know to mail out their application decision letters ahead of time in order for the letters to be delivered on Pi Day.

Regardless as to whether you are studying physics or English, we here at Beaver’s Digest think that with finals either approaching or already here, that everyone should be able to have a piece of pie on Pi Day, so make sure to swing by a bakery around town to enjoy the day.

In case you’re not sure where to get your pie, we’ve collected a list of some of the places around Corvallis you’ll be able to snag a piece.

Bellhop: Brothers in Cheer at 150 SW Madison Avenue in downtown Corvallis. (They even have a Happy Hour from 2:30pm to 5:30pm where all pie slices are $5).

• Fred Meyer at 777 NW Kings Boulevard.
• Hiatt Farm Bakery at 30699 Peterson Road.
• Market of Choice at 922 NW Circle Boulevard.
• New Morning Bakery  at 219 SW 2nd Street.
• Safeway at 590 NE Circle Boulevard.
• Shari’s Cafe and Pies at 1117 NW 9th Street.
• Taylor Street Ovens at 1025 NW 9th Street.
• WinCo Foods at 2335 NW Kings Boulevard.
• Java Stop MU, 111 SW Jefferson Way, Corvallis, OR 97331

If you find yourself without pie at the end of the day, there is no need to worry, as there is another day later in the year for you. Make sure to keep your eyes peeled for Pi Approximation Day on July 22, which is also known as 22/7 in the day/month format, and can be seen as the fraction 22/7 which is a common approximation of Pi.

Photography by Alexander Mils via unsplash.com