Pi Day is celebrated worldwide on March 14th. This is especially true in Princeton, New Jersey, where Albert Einstein spent the latter two decades of his life. He was a familiar figure walking through town between his home at 112 Mercer Street and the Institute for Advanced Study.

Pi Day is dedicated to the mathematical constant π (pi), the first three digits of which are 3.14. Coincidentally, March 14th is also Einstein’s birthday.

For this year’s Pi Day, the Princeton Public Library and the Historical Society of Princeton invite the public to a live Zoom meeting on March 14th from 7-8 pm EST with the authors of EINSTEIN: The Man and His Mind. An award-winning visual biography, this book conveys the essence of the man whose creative mind transformed our understanding of physical reality.

The upcoming live Zoom meeting with the book’s authors, Gary S. Berger and Michael DiRuggiero, will provide a window into Einstein’s life, how his mind worked, and how he realigned our concepts of time & space, mass & energy, and gravity─indeed the very fabric of the universe.

As it turns out, the relationship between Einstein and Pi Day is more than just a coincidence. Pi is an essential part of Einstein’s field equation for his theory of gravity – general relativity. (In physics, a field refers to a physical quantity assigned to every point in space. As a field spreads out, its strength varies over time.) Einstein realized that gravity is best described this way, replacing Isaac Newton’s concept of gravity as a direct, instantaneous action between individual bodies. Every experiment that has been performed since Einstein completed his theory over a century ago has confirmed the accuracy of general relativity.

The celebration of Einstein’s birthday and Pi Day is a testament to the human spirit’s unyielding quest for knowledge. The dual celebration is a powerful reminder that the pursuit of understanding is an endless journey, one that is marked by wonder, challenges, and the occasional breakthrough. It underscores the importance of curiosity and the willingness to explore the unknown, qualities that the mathematical concepts of pi and Einstein embody in their own ways. Through pi, we grasp the infinite, a concept that challenges our understanding and stretches our imagination. In Einstein, we find a role model whose contributions to science continue to illuminate our path forward, showing us that the universe’s mysteries are not beyond our reach but await our inquiry and determination.

Pi Day is also simply about having fun, especially for kids. Events on Pi Day in Princeton include pie eating, contests to see who can give the most extended recitation of the infinite digits of pi, and an Einstein look-alike contest. The 7 pm Zoom meeting topping off the day’s events will be an integral part of the fun while taking a more serious approach in discussing how Albert Einstein was able to perceive what no one had before about the universe we live in.

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Note: The images printed in Einstein: The Man and His Mind are exact copies of the original photos. The images are printed on photographic quality paper that is spot varnished. This technique reproduces the originals as accurately as possible. The exceptional quality control adhered to by the publisher is an essential feature of the book. It permits the reader to share the experience as if viewing the actual photographs in this private collection.

An early review of Einstein: The Man and His Mind was published in the UK where the book became available before its release in the US. In his his Popscience Book Blog, reviewer Brian Clegg states:

“Sometimes a book gets labelled a coffee table book as an insult, suggesting it’s thin on content if visually attractive. Gary Berger and Michael DiRuggerio’s photographic exploration of Einstein is a indubitably a coffee table book, but in its highest form. It’s huge (34 x 26 cm) and contains a collection of beautiful imagery.”

“This is a remarkable book… I’ve never seen anything quite like it.”

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Learn more about Einstein: The Man And His Mind.