No matter how you slice it, Sunday will be the perfect opportunity to introduce your kids to the mystique of pi.

Each March 14, the Maryland Science Center joins schools and museums nationwide in a lighthearted homage to the equation that begins 3.14 and goes on indefinitely. The mathematical formula is intriguing precisely because it should be so simple: Just divide the circumference of a circle by its radius. But instead of a concrete fraction, the measurement continues on to at least a million places without showing any signs of repeating or stopping.

The Science Center has come up with a full slate of activities sure to keep your budding mathematicians going in circles:

•You can have your pi, and eat it, too: The Science Center is reprising its annual pie-eating contest for kids. This year's flavor is Key lime, and as always, there will be a plentiful supply of moonpies. Mom and Dad can have a slice, too.

•Pi Memorization Contest: A 24-year-old Chinese graduate student once recited the first 67,890 digits of pi without making a mistake. How close can you come to that record?

• Hoop it up: The hula hoop endurance challenge will see how long kids can keep the colorful plastic tubes circling their waists. Extra credit will be awarded for reciting the digits of pi while twirling.

• Chain gang: Kids can select a paper circle encoded with one of the digits of pi. They can add it to a giant chain that is being strung across the Science Center lobby ... but only after another child has added the digit preceding theirs in the sequence.

The Science Center, at 601 Light St., is open noon to 4 p.m. Admission is $12 for children; $14 for seniors and $15 for adults.