Physics department wins Pi Day cake -eating competition

On March 14th at 3:14 p.m., students and faculties of the mathematics and physics department gathered on Varian Patio for a PI Day Pie-Eeating competition, which was organized by Stanford University Physics Society (SUPS) and Stanford University Mathematical Organization (Sumo). Five representatives of each department competed for an entire Apple berry cake, while President Jon Levin '94 assessed the competition.

“They ate a gigantic cake, partly with their forks and partly with their hands, and in a very close victory the physics team ate their cakes the fastest,” said Levin in an interview with the daily newspaper. “Congratulations physics!”

Pi Day ”has been a national holiday since 2009 when the congress on March 14, the mathematical constant PI, around 3.14159, or the ratio of the scope of a circle to its diameter. Mathematicians and physicists around the world have celebrated the PI day since then, usually through the food of cakes.

SUPS Co-President León Garcia '27 raised the idea of ​​a PI-Tag cake-free competition during a Sups management meeting that Sumo jumped quickly on board.

“[These events] Are the possibility to bring people together in an unsuccessful way … I wanted to offer a common room in which people can deal with each other, “said Sumo President Andrew Lee '25 MA '26:” It doesn't necessarily have to be about mathematics. “

Both teams showed faculty members, including Christine Taylor, a high -ranking lecturer in the mathematics department, and astrophysics professor Roger Blandford. The Sups and Sumo leadership also turned to Levin and asked him to assess the event.

“It was like a month of radio, but then I got an e -e -mail in which she says that Levin was on board. Then we knew that this was [going to] Be real, ”said Garcia. “When Levin goes on board, people tend to be for it. Also he [was] A math for students. “

Both Lee and Garcia hope to transform the competition into an annual tradition. After the end of the competition, the students helped free cake.