Junior Pierrot Senat (c.), winner of the Pi digit contest at Holy Cross H.S. with 341 digits is flanked by Senior Kevin Dillon, 3rd Place (181 digits) and Senior Alex Etienne, 2nd Place (182 digits).Holy Cross students celebrated National Pi Day on March 14 with their seventh annual competition to see who could recite from memory the most digits of this infinite number that expresses the ratio of the circumference to the diameter of a circle. Pi, the 16th letter of the Greek alphabet, is represented by the symbol π. Since it is a constant, the numerical value of Pi is typically rounded off to 3.14159, hence March 14, or 3/14 is considered Pi Day. The concept of Pi has been explored throughout history from biblical times to the present and its value has been calculated to more than 51 billion decimal places. This symbol has spawned tee shirts, movies, books, fan clubs and even Websites with chat rooms. There are numerous tips on how to memorize the digits and those who do are ranked according to the number of digits they can recall.
Twenty students participated in the contest, each representing his or her math class. The winner of the Pi contest at Holy Cross was junior Pierrot Senat who memorized 341 digits, beating his previous record by 100 digits. Senior Alex Etienne came in second place with 182 digits and senior Kevin Dillon was a close third with 181 digits. All participants celebrated by enjoying a slice of apple, cherry, or blueberry pie.