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Excel - PI Day - Pizza Sizes and SQRTPI Function - Episode 715

275 views · Published 18 February 2009 · 4:52 · Indexed 20 September 2026

Channel: MrExcel.com · 2009 · Education

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Microsoft Excel Tutorial: PI Day - Pizza Sizes and SQRTPI Function.

Welcome back to the MrExcel netcast! I'm Bill Jelen and today we're celebrating Pi Day, March 14th, or 3/14. But before we dive into the world of Pi, I want to remind you that tomorrow, March 15th, is the deadline for our contest announced in episode 700. If you're in the US, send me your name and ZIP code. If you're elsewhere, send your name, country, and postal code for a chance to win a copy of Microsoft MapPoint. We'll be announcing the winner on Monday's podcast, so make sure to get your entries in by Saturday.

Now, let's talk about Pi Day! Pi, the mathematical constant representing the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter, is approximately 3.14159. So, it's only fitting that we celebrate on 3/14. To honor this special day, I want to introduce you to the not so humble Pi calendar, available at pi.com. This calendar, illustrated by Bob D'Amico, the same artist who does the illustrations for the MrExcel books, runs from March to March and is a must-have for any math or tech enthusiast. They also have greeting cards available, although it may be too late to send them out this year.

But that's not all! This Sunday is Selection Sunday for the NCAA basketball tournament, and we're once again hosting our annual Excel-based basketball pool. Head over to mrexcel.com/NCAA.html to download the spreadsheet and enter your picks for a chance to win some Excel books. It's completely free to play and a fun way to track the tournament over the next few weeks.

Now, let's get into the Excel portion of today's podcast. In honor of Pi Day, we're going to take a look at two functions in Excel that are related to Pi. The first one is the PI function, which simply returns the value of Pi. This is great for calculating the area of a circle, as shown in the example of a 12-inch pizza. But did you know there's also a function for the square root of Pi? In my book, I couldn't find a practical use for this function, but a viewer quickly pointed out that it can be used to find the size of a square with the same area as a given circle. So, if you're ever in a debate over which pizza is the better deal, you can use the square root of Pi function to settle it.

And that's not the only use for the square root of Pi. It can also come in handy when comparing the sizes of round and square tanks. So, while I may have initially thought there was no practical use for this function, I stand corrected. And now, you can use it to impress your friends with your knowledge of Pi.

Before we wrap up, I want to remind you to check out the not so humble Pi calendar at pi.com and enter our free college basketball pool at mrexcel.com/NCAA.html. Thanks for tuning in and we'll see you next time for another netcast from MrExcel. Happy Pi Day!

Buy Bill Jelen's latest Excel book: https://www.mrexcel.com/products/latest/

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March 14 (3-14) is Pi day and we will take a look at some calculations with the PI and SQRTPI functions in Episode 715.

Table of Contents:
(00:00) Introduction and reminders
(00:21) Deadline for contest
(00:32) Pi Day and not so humble Pi calendar
(01:33) NCAA basketball pool announcement
(02:07) Functions related to Pi in Excel
(04:10) Clicking Like really helps the algorithm

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