Pi Day: A Celebration From Talk Nerdy To Me! (VIDEO)

Editor's Note: This article originally ran on Pi Day 2012.

Today is March 14, also known as 3.14, also known as Pi Day. Geeks around the world will unite today to celebrate one of the most fascinating and beautiful constants in all of mathematics. I've made a video to celebrate this special day with each and every one of you! So please take a moment to watch, share, and raise a glass to pi!

Also, see the full music video or download the MP3 for Hard 'N Phirm's song Pi, which happens to have a running time of 3:14 and was graciously provided for use in the video above. Happy Pi Day, everyone!

CLICK HERE FOR FULL TRANSCRIPT

CARA SANTA MARIA: Happy Pi Day, everybody! I'm Cara Santa Maria.

DANIEL TAMMET: Pi is one of the most beautiful things in all the world, and if I can share that joy in numbers--if I can share that in some small measure with the world, through my writing and through my speaking, then I feel that I will have done something useful.

CSM: This man recited pi from memory to 22,514 digits. His name is Daniel Tammet, and he has a special gift that very few people possess.

DT: I experience numbers in a very visual way using colors, texture, shape and form, sequences of numbers, form, landscapes in my mind.

CSM: As we all know, pi is the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter. It's an irrational number, meaning that it can't be written as a simple fraction. And what makes Daniel Tammet's feat so incredible is that there's no known algorithm for determining its numerical pattern. Pi goes on forever in an essentially random sequence. Daniel says that "Like the Mona Lisa or a Mozart symphony, pi is its own reason for loving it." Recently, pi was calculated to 10 trillion digits in a feat that took a specialized computer over a year to complete. In my opinion, all of this is cause for celebration. So from talk nerdy to me, Happy Pi Day everyone!

DT: Yes, Pi Day.

DAVID LETTERMAN: I love pie.

DT: I love pi too.

See all Talk Nerdy to Me posts: www.huffingtonpost.com/news/talk-nerdy-to-me
Like Cara Santa Maria on Facebook: www.facebook.com/pages/Cara-Santa-Maria
Follow Cara Santa Maria on Twitter: www.twitter.com/CaraSantaMaria

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Comments

[John Shuck]

01:48 PM on 03/24/2012

Hey! That's my pie!

[Lemniscate]

04:30 PM on 03/22/2012

Pi? Oh, you must mean half Tau.

/hipster glasses

[psycho vato loco]

07:19 AM on 03/21/2012

Circumference = Pi x Diameter

[Claudia L]

08:42 PM on 03/19/2012

I saw a documentary on him. She was wrong he didn't memorize it. He actually calculated it on the spot in his head. He also learned this really difficult scandinavian language in 2 weeks and was interviewed by two men that speak the language on TV and spoke it perfectly. He is autistic but has non of the down side symptoms. You can give him any date in history and he'll tell you what day it was.

[donaldaq63]

04:54 AM on 03/18/2012

10.50 for a slice of key lime pie? outrageous.

[Sir Guy Grand]

07:13 PM on 03/16/2012

That reminds me. I should get some pie on the way home.

[Sir Guy Grand]

07:12 PM on 03/16/2012

... and here I was, all proud of myself because I memorized Pi to 206 places in high school. It didn't even impress the girl I had done it for.

[Socrates2011]

01:00 AM on 03/16/2012

Pi day does not occur in Europe, where they write 14 March as 14-3, instead of 3-14.

[enkrypt3d]

09:57 PM on 03/15/2012

wow she's hot! O_o

[palindrom]

06:58 PM on 03/15/2012

What about e? It don't get no respect.

[orthobobsuruncle]

08:37 AM on 03/16/2012

or i? Just because it's iMAGinary doesn't mean it's unimPORtant.

[orchid1software]

12:32 PM on 03/15/2012

meh

[3in1]

10:05 AM on 03/15/2012

Pi is an error number. No matter the calculation, an error has occurred.

[SeptimusDSX]

07:49 AM on 03/15/2012

It was also Einstein's birthday.

[gutenmorgen]

10:05 AM on 03/15/2012

Yes. Although the following is off-topic it might be of some interest. Albert Einstein was born in Ulm in Southern Germany because his father lived there on a temporary appointment from the government. The family came from the nearby and smaller Bad Buchau. The name Einstein is somewhat of a mystery. While there are many "steins" among Jewish names, e.g. Goldstein, Silberstein, Bernstein, Einstein is very exceptional. It certainly was not the family's name when it moved from Poland to Germany.
Bad Buchau has a Jewish cemetery which was protected from destruction by Nazi goons during "Kristallnacht" by the courageous mayor of the town. There are several gravestones of the Einstein family there. I have seen them myself. Interestingly the Dreyfus family also seems to have roots there, judging again from the gravestones.

[palindrom]

06:57 PM on 03/15/2012

Well, the comedian Albert Brooks decided to take the name of their family friend, Mel Brooks, because his father (another comedian) had the last name Einstein.

[harken23]

07:48 AM on 03/15/2012

Well, not precisely "all over the world", since most of the rest of the world lists it as 14.3.2012. More like "all over some parts of America"... I had pie anyway.

[orthobobsuruncle]

08:39 AM on 03/16/2012

But you have pie every day, admit it. :)

[R500]

07:33 AM on 03/15/2012

This is also Valentine's day for men. So do something nice for your man.