Math Fans Celebrate 'Pi Day': 3/14/15

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) -Saturday is the day when love of math and a hankering for pastry come full circle. Saturday is Pi Day, a once-in-a-year calendar date that this time squares the fun with a once-in-a-century twist.

If you stretch pi out to its third and fourth decimal, you get today's date: 3/14/15.

Saturday is 3-14-15, the first five digits of the mathematical constant pi: 3.141592653. The best times to celebrate are at 9:26 and 53 seconds, morning and evening. The next time that happens is in March 2115.

"When you do that division, take the circumference divided by the diameter, you always get this exact same number that we call pi. That seems kind of magical and kind of special, but it's really just an identifying feature of a circle," Cindy Lawrence, executive director of the National Museum of Mathematics, told WCBS 880.

Hundreds visited the museum in the Flatiron District to celebrate.

"I'm a math teacher and math enthusiast. I wanted to share Pi Day with my girls," Dara Federman told CBS2's Ilana Gold.

Tom Bronson dressed up for the occasion.

"Today is the first day I've worn this shirt. I have many pi shirts, I am a geek," he said.

Kids at the museum played circular games with circular candy as they learned the formulas to estimate pi.

"I like to think about the math of it, I think it's pretty cool," Haddon Township resident Katie Cona said.

Pi enthusiasts celebrated in Madison Square Park at 9:26 p.m. Saturday by using glow stick lights to demonstrate the meaning of pi.

In some places, Pi Day is celebrated with the edible type of pie.

OK, now we're hungry with all this "pi" talk. What's your favorite SWEET or SAVORY pie?

(TM and © Copyright 2015 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2014 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

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