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Happy Pi Day! Yahoo News

As maths geeks around the world celebrate Pi Day some among us who are less nifty with numbers might be left scratching our heads asking ‘why bother?’.

But the annual celebration commemorating the mathematical constant π (pi) is trending across the world on Twitter.

Still not convinced it’s important? Enter Dr Eugenia Cheng – a 3.14 evangelist.

A senior lecturer of pure mathematics at the University of Sheffield, Dr Cheng is on a one-woman mission to demonstrate the everyday uses of the infinite number.

Dr Cheng told Yahoo! News: “I’m really keen on finding fun ways of bringing mathematics to a wider audience. Too many people have bad memories of maths from boring lessons at school – but I love maths, and want to show everyone else that maths is fun as well as useful.

“The number pi is important because it’s crucial for understanding circles and everything circular like cylinders, cones and spheres. And these are everywhere – pies, cakes, plates, manhole covers, the earth, the sun, traffic cones, wine bottles.

“With pi we can work out how much steel we’ll need to make a manhole cover, how much glass we need to make a wine bottle, and how much pastry we need to make a pie.”

Pi Day, which is celebrated on March 14 because of the Americanised date system (3/14), has only been observed since 2009 but has already built up a cult following.

By Rebecca Lewis


Year2013

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Latest Books


The Joy of Abstraction:
An Exploration of Math, Category Theory, and Life

Mathematician and popular science author Eugenia Cheng is on a mission to show you that mathematics can be flexible, creative, and visual. This joyful journey through the world of abstract mathematics into category theory will demystify mathematical thought processes and help you develop your own thinking, with no formal mathematical background needed. The book brings abstract mathematical ideas down to earth using examples of social justice, current events, and everyday life – from privilege to COVID-19 to driving routes. The journey begins with the ideas and workings of abstract mathematics, after which you will gently climb toward more technical material, learning everything needed to understand category theory, and then key concepts in category theory like natural transformations, duality, and even a glimpse of ongoing research in higher-dimensional category theory. For fans of How to Bake Pi, this will help you dig deeper into mathematical concepts and build your mathematical background

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x + y
A Mathematician’s Manifesto for Rethinking Gender

Why are men in charge? After years in the male-dominated field of mathematics and in the female-dominated field of art, Eugenia Cheng has heard the question many times. In x + y, Cheng argues that her mathematical specialty — category theory — reveals why. Category theory deals more with context, relationships, and nuanced versions of equality than with intrinsic characteristics. Category theory also emphasizes dimensionality: much as a cube can cast a square or diamond shadow, depending on your perspective, so too do gender politics appear to change with how we examine them. Because society often rewards traits that it associates with males, such as competitiveness, we treat the problems those traits can create as male. But putting competitive women in charge will leave many unjust relationships in place. If we want real change, we need to transform the contexts in which we all exist, and not simply who we think we are.

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Also by Eugenia


How to Bake Pi: An Edible Exploration of the Mathematics of Mathematics

In How to Bake Pi, math professor Eugenia Cheng provides an accessible introduction to the logic and beauty of mathematics, powered, unexpectedly, by insights from the kitchen. We learn how the béchamel in a lasagna can be a lot like the number five, and why making a good custard proves that math is easy but life is hard.

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The Art of Logic:
How to Make Sense in a World that Doesn’t

Emotions are powerful. In newspaper headlines and on social media, they have become the primary way of understanding the world. But strong feelings make it more difficult to see the reality behind the rhetoric. In The Art of Logic, Eugenia Cheng shows how mathematical logic can help us see things more clearly – and know when politicians and companies are trying to mislead us.

First Cheng explains how to use black-and-white logic to illuminate the world around us, giving us new insight into thorny political questions like public healthcare, Black Lives Matter and Brexit. Then she explains how logic and emotions, used side-by-side, can help us not only to be more rational individuals, but also to live more thoughtfully.

Clear-sighted, revelatory and filled with useful real-life examples of logic and illogic at work, The Art of Logic is an essential guide to decoding modern life.

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About Eugenia


Dr Eugenia Cheng is Scientist In Residence at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Alongside her research in Category Theory and undergraduate teaching her aim is to rid the world of “math phobia”.  Her first popular math book, How to Bake Pi, was published by Basic Books in 2015 to widespread acclaim. Her next book, Beyond Infinity, was published in 2017. Eugenia is also math columnist for the Wall Street Journal, a concert pianist and founder of the Liederstube.

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Upcoming Talks


  • Talk at Royal Institution (London)

    April 5 @ 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm
  • Talk at Connecticut College (tbc)

    April 12
  • Talk, Vassar College (tbc)

    April 13 @ 12:00 pm - 7:00 pm
  • Elizabeth Meckes Memorial Lecture, Case Western University

    April 21 @ 12:45 pm - 1:45 pm

Upcoming Concerts


  • Concert, CAIC – Spring Lieder Lounge (commissioned piece)

    May 7 @ 2:00 pm - 3:30 pm
  • Lynx World Premieres Concert

    May 20 @ 4:00 pm - 6:00 pm

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