Happy Pi and Pie!

Celebrating mathematics through tasty pastry

What is pi day?

14 March 2025 -- CHATHAM, MA -- What better way to celebrate the magical number 3.14 than at Marion's Pie Shop! Pi day began in 1988 as a tongue in cheek way to celebrate mathematics and the beauty of that magic ratio, 3.14... Along the way it embraced its homonym, that flaky tasty PIE as its emblem.

What is pi?

Pi (vs pie) is the mathematical constant that represents the ratio between a circle's circumference and its diameter. That number just happens to be 3.14 .... It's a ratio with a history, one that's been in play for more than 4000 year. Modern middle schoolers learn about it and ancient Egyptian and Babylonian mathematicians and engineers worked with it.

Who started pi day?

In 1988 Larry Shaw from the Exploratorium science museum in San Francisco Francisco came up with the idea of using the date 3-14 celebrate the iconic pi ratio 3.14… and the wonder of mathematics. The link to the pastry pie proved a natural link - and people have been enjoying the word play and the ratio ever since.

What about the pie?

Today we get to enjoy both pi and pie- with a glimpse behind the scenes of the making of the pastry version at Chatham iconic Marion's pies, home to the pie process since 1947. -