Today is the mathematical celebration of the mathematical constant—𝛑, pi, or 3.14159265359….etc. etc.

Maybe you’re going out and taking advantage of those tempting Marie Callender’s or Pieology deals to celebrate out of your true love for math.

Or you could be taking a moment of silence to remember all those stress-ridden late nights trying to understand Middle School math (I fall in the ‘I struggle with math’ camp just so you know! haha)

Whether you’re a math wiz, or never really understood the cruel and unusual punishment of required math courses, I believe there is something we can all learn from “Pi Day.”

Pi Defined

The mathematical constant of “pi” is found by dividing the circumference of any circle by its diameter.

Pi is Constant

Also referred to as “Archimede’s Constant,” this number is considered a constant in math + science. You will always get the same number when dividing any circle’s circumference by its diameter.

So, Pi is reliable in the fact that it’s always there and will never change.

Pi is Irrational

At the same time, Pi is an irrational number because it can’t be written as a common fraction (meaning both numbers in the fraction have to be integers, and not zero).

Pi Is Random

Pi can also be described as random. We’ve only been able to compute pi as far as trillions of digits after the decimal, and yet the numbers don’t ever fall into any sort of pattern.

So, you could say Pi is not only random but infinite as well.

What We Can Learn

What exactly am I trying to say about Pi?

The point I am trying to make is that Pi is much like the world we live in.

We live in a world that can seem completely irrational. Sometimes things happen to us, or to those close to us that just don’t make sense.

Many times we try to make sense of natural disasters, heart-ache, and other devastations and try to assign it meaning, or even try to connect it to something else that may have happened.

The fact is, many things about life don’t always make sense.

Pi is random, just as our lives can seem like they are being assigned random numbers or lots.

Life doesn’t always have a reason for you being born into a less well-off family, compared to another person who may have been born to wealth.

And yet, despite all the uncertainty that can come with living in a world that may seem totally irrational and random, there are constants in life just as pi is a mathematical constant.

We can have the constants of love, family, God, religion, forgiveness, humility, boldness, courage, or motivation no matter what the world may throw at us.

There are constants in our life we can cling to in times when things may seem so unpredictable.

And that is the beauty of Pi.

How Do We Creat Constants?

If you read my last article on how to prepare for the Coronavirus, I outlined some things that we can still be in control of.

Some of these things included proper planning, stocking up needed supplies beforehand, how healthy you eat, how well you clean and sanitize, how much sleep you get.

All of these can, of course, be impacted by external factors (ie. you could try to stock up but the store shelves could be empty, you could want to get more sleep but your crying child could keep you up).

But the “constants,” you could say in each of these situations are that you still have your ability to make choices, and you still can decide how motivated you will be and what attitude you will have.

You can still choose to maintain love or family stability by choosing to contribute greater understanding and forgiveness. You can still choose to have faith and hope that things will get better.

What Do You Think?

What is your opinion on Pi? Can understanding its characteristics help us understand more about the world and life? Have you found lessons about life in unexpected ways? In what ways have they changed your view of life? Is there something we can all do to find greater constants in our life?

Let us know in the comments below!