Students from Holy Cross H.S., Flushing, celebrated National Pi Day with their eighth annual competition to see who could recite from memory the most digits of this infinite number that expresses the ratio of the circumference to the diameter of a circle.

Pi, the 16th letter of the Greek alphabet, is represented by the symbol π. Since it is a constant, the numerical value of Pi is typically rounded off to 3.14159, hence March 14 is considered Pi Day.

The concept of Pi has been explored throughout history from biblical times to the present and its value has been calculated to over 51 billion decimal places.

The winner of the Holy Cross Pi contest for the third consecutive year was senior Pierrot Senat, who memorized 500 digits, beating the all-time Holy Cross record of 441 and surpassing his personal record by nearly 200. Sophomore Ryan Perno came in second place with 177 digits and junior Andrew Azarcon earned third place with 113 digits. All participants celebrated by enjoying a slice of apple, cherry, or blueberry pie.