After the invention of the circular wheel, human progress became very fast. But we still could not find the value related to this circle. That is the number ‘Pi’. The perimeter of a circle is called the circumference. The ratio of the circumference to the diameter is called ‘pi’. This value is constant and is neither terminate nor recurring. In mathematics, such numbers are called ‘rational numbers’. Its value has been calculated with the help of computers to a trillion decimal places. But it is neither terminate nor recurring .
For convenience in mathematics, the value of ‘pi’ is taken as approximately 3.14. That’s why March 14th is celebrated as Pi Day. It is an international event celebrated around the world on March 14th every year. Pi is an annual opportunity for math enthusiasts to recite the infinite number of digits. It is a day that combines fun and education. March 14 is considered ‘Pi Day’ because 3,1,4 are the first three significant digits of ‘Pi’. This number has various applications in almost every calculation in mathematical formulas, geometry, physics, astronomy, and engineering.
‘ History of Pi Day:
American physicist Larry Shaw organized the first Pi Day celebration at the San Francisco Exploratorium in 1988. In 2009, the US House of Representatives passed a resolution to recognize March 14 as National Pi Day. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) decided to celebrate Pi Day (March 14) as International Mathematics Day at its 40th General Assembly in November 2019.
Famous Scientist’s Birthday:
Coincidentally, today is the birthday of a world-famous scientist. ‘The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge! Imagination! Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. And never stop questioning. Life is like riding a bicycle, to stay balanced you have to keep moving,’ he said. As a child, he was unable to learn to speak, which worried his parents. As a young man, he solved physics problems that had remained unsolved for centuries, astonished even the scientists of his time with his theories, and became a world-renowned genius, receiving the Nobel Prize in Physics.
He was ‘Albert Einstein’. Such a brilliant man had never been born before. Einstein was born on March 14, 1879, in Ulm, Germany. He moved to Switzerland in 1895. At the age of seventeen, he enrolled at the Swiss Federal Polytechnic School for a diploma in mathematics and physics, graduating in 1901 and becoming a Swiss citizen. He was unemployed for a few months there. He experienced a very difficult financial situation. In 1902, he got a job at the Bern patent office, where he had enough free time to study.
The year 1905 was important in his life because it was in this year that he presented four revolutionary papers in physics. They were ‘theories of the photoelectric effect, Brownian motion, mass-energy equivalence, and special relativity.’ He received his PhD from the University of Zurich. He served as president of the German Physical Society from 1916 to 1918. In 1922, he received the Nobel Prize in Physics for his discovery of the photoelectric effect in theoretical physics. The ‘Theory of Relativity’ made him a prominent figure in the world. With his theories of special relativity and general relativity, Einstein incorporated many of the assumptions underlying previous physical theories. It also has applications in quantum mechanics and modern physics. It’s amazing that people still don’t understand it! After Hitler came to power in Germany in 1933, he went to America.
He did not return to Germany because he was Jewish. In America, he worked as a professor at the Berlin Academy of Sciences. He settled there after becoming an American citizen in 1940. During World War II, he wrote a letter to then US President Franklin D. Roosevelt explaining that research was being done on extremely powerful bombs, which could lead to the creation of an atomic bomb. He made it clear that he was completely opposed to the testing of the newly invented atomic bomb. He signed the Russell-Einstein Manifesto, along with British philosopher Bertrand Russell, calling for the non-use of nuclear weapons.
Other theories:
Einstein’s work on Avogadro’s number laid the foundation for determining the atomic and molar masses of each element in the periodic table. Brownian motion is another important theory of Einstein. It describes the random motion of particles in a liquid or gas. This theory played a key role in proving the existence of atoms and molecules. photoelectric effect, phenomenon in which electrically charged particles are released from or within a material when it absorbs electromagnetic radiation. The effect is often defined as the ejection of electrons from a metal plate when light falls on it. Electrons emitted in this manner are called photoelectrons. The phenomenon is studied in condensed matter physics, solid state, and quantum chemistry to draw inferences about the properties of atoms, molecules and solids. The effect has found use in electronic devices specialized for light detection and precisely timed electron emission. Video camera tubes in the early days of television used the photoelectric effect. Einstein published over 300 scientific papers and 150 non-scientific papers. In December 2014, the University of California, Berkeley released 30,000 scientific papers attributed to Einstein. His name has become a household name due to his intelligence and contributions to many fields.
Death:
On April 17, 1955, Einstein suffered a ruptured abdominal aorta and internal bleeding. He refused surgery. “I want to go when I want to, I don’t want to artificially prolong life, I’ve done my part, it’s time to go.” he said. He died the next morning at Princeton Hospital at the age of 76. He worked at the Princeton Institute for Advanced Study in New Jersey until his death.
