Jeffrey Martinovic wishes us all a happy holiday.
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THURSDAY PUZZLE — I am not really an observer of occasions such as the one that Jeffrey Martinovic highlights in today’s puzzle, but, if you are, please celebrate responsibly. Run in circles, eat desserts that are not cake. By all means, have a fabulous time.
Just don’t round up numbers that should not be rounded up. More about that fabulous story in the theme section of the column.
Today’s Theme (and a Great Story About it)
You probably guessed Jeffrey Martinovic’s theme right away when you noted the date and saw the black squares in the shape of the Greek letter pi (π), which represents the constant 3.14. The amount of theme material here is a bit light, but his grid is flanked by the mathematical giants STEPHEN HAWKING (3D), who died on PI DAY (33D) in 2018, and ALBERT EINSTEIN (11D), who was born on that day in 1879. In addition, Mr. Martinovic’s puzzle includes Leonhard EULER (29D), whose famous mathematical identity ︎includes pi.
The value of pi has been known for almost 4,000 years, but the mathematical constant that is used to help calculate the area of a circle had what is thought to be its first celebration in 1988 at the San Francisco Exploratorium. In 2009, the House of Representatives recognized March 14 as National Pi Day, and we’ve been eating fruit pie on this day ever since.
Speaking of government recognition, this declaration was not the first time that pi had been the subject of discussion in the halls of civic discourse.
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Source: Elections - nytimes.com
