Pi Day: Math and Sweets Unite on Sunday

(MYFOX NATIONAL) - You probably knew this, but Sunday is Pi Day, celebrated by math enthusiasts around the world on March 14.

Yes, it's also the first day of daylight saving time. Consider Pi Day a consolation to your lost sleep.

Pi is a Greek letter and the symbol for the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter, according to the Pi Day Web site . The symbol was first used in 1706 by William Jones. It became popular after the symbol was adopted in 1737 by the Swiss mathematician Leonhard Euler, according to the site.

So, what's the holiday all about? It's "celebrated" on March 14 because 3.14 are the first digits of the irrational number pi, according to Town Topics , a weekly newspaper in Princeton, N.J.

March 14 is also Albert Einstein's birthday, and Princeton, where he died in 1955, makes the most of the two noted events, according to Town Topics .

Local merchants on Princeton Pi Day offer discounts and various events in their stores, and there's special programming at the public library, among other activities, the newspaper reported.

The first celebration of Pi Day was at the San Francisco Exploratorium in 1988. During the festivities members of the staff and public marched around one of the facility's circular spaces then ate fruit pies, according to The Sacramento Bee . The event is the brainchild of retired physicist Larry Shaw, The Bee reports.

San Francisco's Exploratorium will celebrate its 22nd Pi Day this Sunday with terrible Pi puns, Pi-inspired antics and activities, and by consuming pie, according to the Exploratorium Web site .

At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Pi Day is marked by mailing acceptance letters so that they are delivered to prospective students on March 14, according to a Wikipedia site dedicated to Pi Day. Unlikely this year since Pi Day falls on a Sunday.