Happy Pi Day!

It is that time of year again when we celebrate the beauty of a ratio without whom we could not find the area of a circle or the volume of a cylinder or cone.  It is found in nature but its also a number that government has tried to regulate via law or has been adopted by a military unit.

I am proud to announce that I have several T-shirts that deal in some for with that wonderful create we call Pi.  My students think I'm crazy but I'm just into math.

Its also a number that has been around for a very long time.  The ancient Babylonians took three times the square of the radius for the value of Pi but documents have been discovered showing they assigned a value of 3.125 for it around 1900 B.C.

Another document, the Rhind Papyrus from Ancient Egypt shows the Egyptians calculated Pi to be around 3. 1605 and this is still a fifteen hundred years BC.  Then around 200 BC, Archimedes, the famous mathematician, calculated the value of pi by using the Pythagorean theorem to find the area of a polygon inscribed inside a circle and a polygon with a circle inscribed within it.  He was able to show the value of Pi was between 3 1/7 and 3 10/71.

Even the Chinese had a mathematician who worked on calculating the value of Pi without being aware of the work done by Archimedes.  Zu Chongzhi came up with a value of 355/113 for Pi but we are not sure how he did it because much of his work has disappeared over time.

It took till 1706 for someone, namely William Jones, to assign the Greek letter Pi, the same one we use today to represent Pi but it did not become popular until Euler began using it in 1737.  Apparently, the letter was taken from the Greek word for perimeter. During the same century, a French Mathematician used probability to calculate the value of Pi.

Prior to computers, William Shanks, in 1874, calculated Pi to the 707th digit but only the first 527 were correct.  It wasn't until 1945 that D.F. Ferguson calculated Pi to 606 digits correctly.  In 1947, D.F. Ferguson used a table calculator to find the digits to 710 places.  With the computer, it became easier to calculate pi and has been calculated to over the 10 trillion places.

In addition, you'll find pi popping up in books, television, movies such as the Twilight series, in the Fox Trot series with the two young men, the Simpsons, cheers at MIT and Georgia Tech, colognes, and there is even music based on the digits of pi.  Its found in nature, in architecture such as the Pyramids, and its all around us.

I attend conferences where people wear t-shirts with Pi on it.  I have several and am proud to wear them.  Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.  Have a great day.

Happy Pi Day

  Pi is probably the most famous ratio in history.  It is also one of the most famous irrational number known to man.  Today is the day designated to celebrate the awesomeness of pi.

As you know, pi is the ratio of circumference to diameter which means that no matter the size of the circle, the ratio is always the same.

Although the concept of pi has been around for a long time, it was only in 1706 that William Jones first used the Greek symbol for pi.  But The symbol did not come into popular use until Leonhard Euler used it in 1734.  The letter p in pi represents the perimeter of a circle.

Interesting fact:  Pi day became an officially recognized by the United States Government when House Bill 224 passed the first session of the 111th Congress of the United States in 2009.  March 14th is the perfect day for pi since its set for the 14th day of the 3rd month or 3.14.

Now for some interesting facts about pi.

1.  Pi day is also Albert Einstein's birthday along with several other famous people.

2.  If you were to print the first 1 billion digits in regular font, it would cover the distance from New York City to Kansas City.

3. "I prefer pi" is a palindrome.

4. In "Wolf in the Fold" from the original Star Trek, Spock beats the evil computer by having it calculate pi to the last digit.

5.  Pi as the secret code plays a part in two movies - The Net with Sandra Bulluck and Torn Curtain by Alfred Hitchcock.

6. There are no zeros in the first 31 digits of pi.

7. Givanchy marketed a cologne named Pi.

8. It is said that everybody's birthday appears somewhere in the digits in pi in order.

9.  At position 763, there are 6 nines in a row.  This is known as Feynman point.

10. The longest sequence of numbers to appear in order is 12345 and it appears eight separate times.

11. Pi has been calculated to the 1.24 trillion digits and  calculations continue.

Have a wonderful Pi Day.  

Pi Day!

  Welcome to Pi Day, the day designated to celebrate the beauty of the most famous irrational number in the world.  The day celebrating a ratio of circumference to diameter.  The day people joke about with "Pie are not square, they are round!"  A day with its own organization.

Imagine, Pi has been calculated to the one trillionth digit!  A length that is so mind boggling that we just accept it rather than think about it.  I love Pi but my students fight me when using it.  They want to use 3.14 while I'm trying to have them use the Pi symbol because its more accurate.

Have you ever had a Pi scavenger hunt in your room?  Put up QR codes with information and facts on PI?  Then have them write down the trivia such as information on the RAF unit who has Pi as its symbol?

Did you know?
1.  NASA created a Stellar math challenge to show people how they use Pi in their work?  Image being able to show students a real life use of Pi other than for calculating the area of a circle or volume of a cone, sphere, or cylinder?

2.  There is all sorts of compositions out there based on the digits in Pi.  This activity explains how to compose a piece of music based on Pi so your more musical students could easily craft their own compositions on garage band or other app.

3.  What about an assortment of numerical puzzles involving Pi?  The New York Times Blog has a lovely list of puzzles your students can try.

4.  Check out Teach Pi for over 50 ideas and activities to help out on Pi Day.  Activities cover everything from crafts to events, projects, lessons, and songs.  The lessons cover everything from historical ways to calculate pi to figuring out the best price of a pizza or how much pizza each student gets based on the number of pizza's and students present.

5. To finish off the list of resources, the Exploratorium has a wonderful list of suggested activities and links to make celebrations even more fun.

If you want other ideas, just do a quick internet search for ideas.

Finally, Happy Birthday to Albert Einstein who was born on March 14th many years ago and who had a profound influence on the world.

Today is Pi day!

The interesting thing about pi day today is that it is celebrating its 27th anniversary.  Today is March 14, 2015 or 3.1415, the first 5 digits of pi.  If you carry it out, then you could celebrate pi day on March 14, 2015 at 9:26:53 either in the morning or afternoon.  The date and time comprise the first 10 digits of pi.  I heard someone once say that pi is a beautiful number because it contains all the birth dates, social securities, phone numbers plus so many other important numbers in the world.  That made it in my eyes, something more exciting than just the number I need to use when calculating the volume of a cylinder.
When you teach math, you end up having students use something to measure the circumference of a circle and a ruler to find the diameter and most of the time, students end up with a number that actually ends because most students do not measure as accurately as they should.  In class we usually end up using a piece of yarn or twine, both of which has a certain amount of stretch.  I've tried a small piece of paper but the students often find it difficult to get it to match the actual circle. 
I am wondering if I can get a small device that would allow me to use some sort of laser to determine the distance around the circle.  I vaguely recall seeing something that looks like a pen light that can do that.  I also wonder how much closer students calculations would be using something like that?
Just for fun the world science festival has 10 trivia questions on pi.  Enjoy! 

Pi day is coming up

In the past, I've had students research pi and how it is used.  In addition, they need to see where it is found in life because the 22nd squadron of the Royal Air Force has pi as part of their badge.  It was approved back in May 1936.  There are several articles on transforming the numbers from pi into a never ending musical piece.  Pi plays a part in the great pyramid in Giza.  In fact, a place in Indiana passed a bill declaring pi is 22/7.
Once students have gathered enough information, they can create an infographic, make an interactive book, a poster, a QR scavenger hunt, a music video based on the digits in pi, a video or podcast on the topic.  Why not even find out which famous people celebrate their birthday on March 14th?  There are so many possibilities.