Planes Write Out 'Pi in the Sky' Over Cupertino

Something different happened in the skies over the Bay Area Wednesday, and some students at Cupertino Middle School were left wondering what was going on.

"Everyone saw it and were really freaked out! We all thought that there was some sort of military mishap! Some were kind of scared and was wondering what the heck was going on," says Sarah Kinghorn, who says she was "promoted" to middle school this school year.

So, what was it? It was "Pi in the Sky".

Budding reporter Sarah provided the photos attached to this article.

At the request of a California-born artist known as Ishky, artists, programmers and scientists teamed up to bring the Bay Area the unique visual experience of seeing all the numbers of Pi, the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter, written in the clouds.

According to the Ishky’s website, “five synchronized aircraft equipped with dot-matrix technology will skywrite the first 1,000 numbers of Pi's infinite sequence” at 10,000 feet altitude. The planes looped around the Bay Area, and each number was set to be over a quarter-mile in height.
 
It was set to begin above the ZERO1 Garage in San Jose at 11:45 a.m. and then again at 1:30 p.m.

According to the website:

“Within moments of execution (3.14159265...), the specific meaning of the numbers in the sky will be lost. The piece will dissolve into an unprecedented visual anomaly that prompts curiosity, providing rich opportunity for social interaction.”

According to the "Pi in the Sky" Facebook page here's how the schedule looked for the Bay Area:

San Jose- 11:45 a.m.

Fremont - 11:54 a.m.

Hayward - 11:59 a.m.

Oakland - 12:06 p.m

Berkeley - 12:08 p.m

San Francisco - 12:13 p.m

San Bruno - 12:23 p.m

San Mateo - 12:27 p.m

Redwood City - 12:31 p.m

Palo Alto - 12:34 p.m

Mountain View - 12:36 p.m

San Jose - 12:43 p.m

Wrap Around Completion - 12:56 p.m