'If you don't fancy watching oddball movie Pi, why not try calculating pi by throwing frozen hot dogs?'

Andrew Chapman rounds up (or down) some reasons to celebrate Pi Day

March 14 is Pi Day (not to be confused with the various Pi Approximation Days, a festival in celebration of the maths world's favourite irrational number (and Greek letter).

Some of the nerdier corners of the internet offer various suggestions about ways to celebrate this irrational occasion.

If you don't fancy watching oddball movie Pi, why not try calculating pi by throwing frozen hot dogs?

Or how about learning the number's first million digits?

Drifting slightly further afield, you could also attempt to learn all the lyrics of the song American Pie - songwriter Don McLean, when asked what it means, famously replied "It means I never have to work again."

The value of pi and approximations to it have often been contentious subjects.

In 1897 the Indiana Pi Bill attempted to bludgeon science into submission with the might of the law, including an odd attempt to use 3.2, or even 4, as the number's value.

The most common approximation used is 22/7, but that's slightly too big. Maybe a pi chart would help.

Here at Surefish all this talk of pie makes us hungry, and we're not the first to think in this way.

Recipes

Pies have a happily long history. Here's a list of our 3.14 favourite pies:

1. Apple pie (via the Bramley Apple Info Service). Ingredients: 675g apples, 75-100g brown sugar, grated rind and juice of 2 orange, 1 tsp mixed spice, 1tbsp plain white flour, 25g butter, 175g shortcrust pastry, 1-2tsp caster sugar. Full recipe here.

2. Delia's flaky fish pie. Ingredients: plain flour, 200g butter, salt, beaten egg, 350g white fish, 1tbsp capers, 4 small gherkins, 2tbsp chopped parsley, 2 hard-boiled eggs, lemon juice, salt and pepper. Full recipe here.

3. Gordon Ramsay's Shepherd's Pie. Ingredients: 2 tbsp olive oil, salt and pepper, 500g minced lean lamb, 1 onion, 1 carrot, 2 cloves garlic, 1-2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce, 1 tbsp tomato puree, thyme, rosemary, 250ml red wine, 300ml chicken stock, 1kg Desiree potatoes, 50g butter, 2 egg yolks, Parmesan, olive oil. Full recipe here.

3.14. Antony Worrall Thompson's Snickers Pie. Ingredients: puff pastry, 140g mascarpone, 110g soft cheese, 50g caster sugar, 3 eggs, 5 Snickers bars, milk to glaze. Full recipe here - but we think if you ate more than 0.14 of it you'd increase both your diameter and your circumference!