We celebrate Pi Day every March 14th since that date has the notation of 03.14, and on that day we recognize how the many engineering disciplines use Pi in their work. For Chemical Engineering we will see how Pi is used to calculate vertical and horizontal cylindrical tank volumes as well as fluid dynamics of liquid flow in pipes. Given a fluid flow rate in gallons per minute (GPM) we can calculate the fluid velocity in a given pipe size that in turn will generate a frictional flow loss in the pipe and yield how much energy is needed to pump a fluid through a pipe for a given flow rate. After this energy is obtained, we can convert it into a horsepower to size a motor with an electrical power load. From this electrical power load, we can then convert it into a carbon footprint to evaluate the sustainability of a pumping process, and generate the optimum pump size, flow rate and pipe size that a given process can accept. This is all in appreciation to the work of a Greek mathematician, Archimedes, who first created an accurate algorithm in 250 BC to approximate Pi = C/D as 22/7.
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