Today is π approximation day (also known as casual π day). I talked about this 2 years ago in this blog post.
I first learned about the approximation 22/7 of π as a child and was fascinated with such approximations. I remember using a handheld calculator to find fractions that better approximates π by multiplying π with larger and larger integers and check when the result is close to an integer. This of course is a tedious process, but I was able to find some good approximations. A much better approach is to use continued fractions. The continued fraction expansion of π produces convergents which are the best rational fractions that approximates π.
In countries using YY/MM, this whole month is π approximation month!
