Larry Shaw, physicist and artist, to whom we owe Pi Day

A thick beard, long hair, a red riding hood, flashy shirts and a charismatic smile. These were some of the hallmarks of Larry Shaw, the physicist, teacher and artist behind Pi Day celebrations in honor of the infinite mathematical constant 3.14159… celebrated on March 14th.

But who was Larry Shaw? Originally from Washington, he received a bachelor’s degree in physics from Reed College in Portland, Oregon in 1961. He worked at the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory and the Space Science Laboratory at the University of California.

In 1972 he arrived at the San Francisco Exploratorium. It was here that he showed all his creativity to bring science closer to society through art. For example, he worked on the design of the hexagonal steps so that visitors could dance and make music.

How did Pi Day start?

In 1988, he came up with the idea to observe a constant that defines the relationship between the circumference of a circle and its diameter.

On March 14, he put on a red cap with magic numbers and led the parade of visitors to the museum. Each held a sign with the numbers π. They had to go in strict order, three in front, followed by 1, 4, 5, 9… and so on.

But why did you choose this day? In addition to coinciding with the birth of Albert Einstein, Anglo-Saxon countries usually write dates by putting the month first and then the day. Thus March 14 would be represented as 3.14, the first three digits of pi.

According to Shaw, the best part of Pi Day was the opportunity to make science in general accessible and interesting to everyone.

Since then, Pi Day has gained popularity among lovers of this exact science, who celebrate it by eating cakes – this is the word in English (sole) is a homophone of pi– or with competitions about who can remember the most decimal places for pi, among other things.

In 2009, the US Congress passed a resolution establishing National Pi Day. “It’s not mine; it belongs to everyone. I’m just a guy holding a pole,” Shaw said, referring to the popularity of the celebration. In 2019, two years after his death, UNESCO declared March 14 International Mathematics Day.