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Google celebrates Pi Day 2026 with a doodle
14 Mar 2026

Google is celebrating Pi Day 2026 with a special doodle, paying tribute to the ancient Greek mathematician Archimedes and his groundbreaking work in measuring pi (p).

The doodle, which can be seen on Google's homepage across the globe, highlights the historical significance of this important mathematical constant.

Pi Day is celebrated annually on March 14, representing the first three digits of p—3.14.

Archimedes's work on pi
Mathematical technique

This year's doodle celebrates Archimedes's geometric method of calculating the value of pi.

Over 2,000 years ago, he used a technique involving polygons drawn inside and outside a circle to calculate this constant with remarkable accuracy.

He even used two 96-sided polygons to show that pi lies between two close numbers.

His work laid the groundwork for future mathematicians and modern computational techniques that have calculated millions of digits of pi.

What is pi?
Pi's role

Pi is the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter, making it a vital constant in mathematics and science.

It is an irrational number, meaning its decimal representation never ends or repeats.

Pi appears in countless mathematical and physical formulas.

The first known use of the Greek letter p to represent this ratio was by Welsh mathematician William Jones in 1706.

Celebrating Pi Day
Worldwide observance

The modern celebration of Pi Day began in 1988, a tradition that continues to this day.

It gained wider recognition in the US in 2009 when the House of Representatives passed a non-binding resolution declaring March 14 as National Pi Day.

The day is celebrated with math games, p-digit recitation contests, and educational programs.

Notably, Rajveer Meena from Rajasthan holds a Guinness World Record for memorizing 70,000 decimal places of Pi blindfolded over nearly 10 hours on March 21, 2015.