During mathematics lessons and breaks, students in grades 4–8 could explore the number Pi independently while solving various tasks. The “Mathematical Orienteering” competition, in which students from grades 6–8 competed, attracted great interest that day. The game involved finding and solving 12 tasks placed throughout the school. Mathematics teachers checked the solutions to the arithmetic, association-based and creative tasks. The students who completed the greatest number of tasks correctly were rewarded with an excellent grade in mathematics.

Why is Ludolfina so important?

Pi Day was first celebrated on March 14, 1988, in San Francisco, at one of the first science centers, the Exploratorium. March 14 is also Albert Einstein’s birthday—3.14 in the American date format! Later, many American schools began celebrating a mathematics holiday on that day (Pi Day), which was also recognized by a resolution of the United States House of Representatives. The official celebrations also begin at a non-random time—namely, at 1:59 p.m. Combined with the date, this gives the expansion of Pi to five decimal places.

In addition to mathematical formulas, Ludolfina is also used in physical, demographic and epidemiological formulas. Its use enables calculations to be performed with high accuracy. It is used in geometry, mathematical analysis, number theory, probability theory, demography, equations in the theory of gravity, and quantum mathematics.

Fun facts about Ludolfina

  • in the Pyramid of Cheops, the ratio of the sum of two sides of the base to its height is 3.1416, which is an approximation of Pi accurate to four decimal places!
  • in the first hundred million digits after the decimal point of Pi, there is an almost 75% probability that we will find our date of birth in the day/month/year format
  • there is also a possibility that, if we examine the first 2 billion digits after the decimal point of Pi, we will find our telephone number there;
    the confirmed world record (2006) for memorizing a sequence of digits currently belongs to Japanese man Akira Haraguchi, who recited it to an accuracy of 100,000 decimal places, breaking his own record of 83,431 decimal places
  • there is currently no way to store the entire number Pi in any memory
  • scientists investigating the existence of extraterrestrial beings sent a radio message into space containing, among other things, the value of Pi—they are convinced that beings living in space, if any exist, know this number and can read the message

The number Pi also inspired artists. Nobel Prize winner Wisława Szymborska wrote a poem about it, “The Great Number,” in 1976: (...) The procession of digits making up the number Pi does not stop at the edge of the page; it can stretch across the table, through the air, through a wall, a leaf, a bird’s nest, the clouds, straight into the sky, through all the sky’s swelling vastness and bottomlessness. (...)

The famous Ludolfina can also be heard. After assigning the digits from 1 to 9 to successive notes of the musical scale, the melody below was created.

Fun facts and information about Ludolfina based on information from Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin.