A Piece of Pi

MIT celebrated March 14—recognized as Pi Day by geeks the world over—by releasing its admissions decisions online. At 6:28 p.m. (two times pi, or tau), the 1,485 applicants admitted to the Class of 2020 were able to access the good news. Meanwhile, MIT social-media maven Jenny Li Fowler marked the day by releasing a video showing what happened when she challenged current students to write out as many digits of pi as they could remember. In one hour in Lobby 10, she found eight willing to give it a shot. Diann Hyunh ’19 rattled off pi to 17 decimal places. Marta Manzin ’19 said she’d learned a song to help her remember. Saranesh Prembabu ’19 and Trevor McMichael ’19 both made it to 33 decimal places; McMichael ventured to 40 but then wiped out the last seven. “I think I’ll end it there,” he said. Watch the video at www.technologyreview.com/piday.