What is “transcendental, irrational, and delicious?”

Pi, according to the Harvard Math Club.

On Friday, March 14, the group sponsored its third annual day of celebrations in honor of the omnipresent mathematical ratio, often approximated as 3.14.

The day began with a public calculation of pi at 10 a.m. in front of the Science Center, followed by a pi recitation contest and a pie-eating contest later in the afternoon.

During the public calculation, the group handed out flyers about pi to curious passers-by.

Math Club Social Chair James A. Fowler ’03 created the flyer, which detailed various facts about pi, including the mathematical logic behind the ratio’s “irrational” and “transcendental” nature.

Fowler said his efforts to promote pi were successful.

“People were pretty happy receiving information about Pi Day,” he said.

Leila A. Strachan ’04 won the pi-recitation contest, naming 208 digits—nearly three times what her closest competitors could recall.

Fowler said beyond “the people’s ovation and fame forever,” a material prize is yet to be determined for the day’s contests.

But Strachan said an intangible reward was more than enough.

“I like to think that my prize was the glowing admiration of some math department guys who have no idea that I don’t even really know what pi is,” Strachan wrote in an e-mail.

Strachan, who said she already knew more than 100 digits of pi before this year’s contest, cited a “long-standing blood-feud” with Aaron M. Tievsky ’03, last year’s winner, as her primary motivation for competing.

Strachan noted that Tievsky did not attend this year’s showdown, “probably out of fear.”

The Pi Day revelry culminated at 3:14 p.m. when about 13 students scrambled to consume pounds of pastry in a pie-eating contest. Math Club members weighed the pies before and after consumption to ensure the greatest possible accuracy when determining the contest’s results.