Intellectual Property Insights from Fishman Stewart
Mini Article – Volume 23, Issue 5
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Happy Pi Day!
Happy (Early) Pi Day! Each year, March 14th is celebrated as Pi Day around the world. This day is dedicated to the mathematical constant π, which represents the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter.
Pi is an important constant in mathematics, and is used in a variety of fields, including physics, engineering, and statistics. Pi is an irrational number, which means it cannot be expressed as a finite decimal or a fraction. Its decimal representation goes on infinitely, without any repeating pattern, but the first three digits are 3.14—which is why we celebrate Pi Day on March 14th (or 03/14 in month/day format).
To date, pi has been calculated to over 31 trillion decimal places! Though in ancient times, Egyptians and Babylonians approximated pi as 3.125, while the ancient Greeks approximated it as 3.1416. The symbol for pi (π) was first used by Welsh mathematician William Jones in 1706.
In recent years, Pi Day has gained popularity around the world, with people coming up with creative ways to celebrate the day—like eating pie, reciting digits of pi, and running a 5k race (which is around 3.1 miles).
This year, we celebrate by sharing our favorite Pi-themed joke: What do you call a snake that is 3.14 meters long? A π-thon! Happy Pi Day!
Kristyn Webb is the Group Leader of Fishman Stewart’s Copyright Practice Group, and is currently earning a Master’s Degree in Copyright Law at King’s College London.
Published March 10, 2023
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