It's March 14, and in about ten minutes (in Utah anyway) it will be the Pi Moment at 3/14 1:59. pretty cool, huh?
Posted by Avadaru (Member # 3026) on :
Posted by Elizabeth (Member # 5218) on :
I need ideas, and FAST, for Pi Day tomorrow. I am doing a circumference-finding activity for math, buying a circular cake to cut, but what for English and social studies? It is too late to get the fabulous book "The Mathematician Who Measured the World," about Eratosthenes.
Any links or quick ideas are welcome. These are at-risk kids, and they are motivated by activity, but can't handle too much of it. It has to be a free thinking activity in a highly structured framwork.
Posted by Jenny Gardener (Member # 903) on :
English - homophones seem a natural. Write a story where somebody keeps getting pi mixed up with pie!
Social studies - examine how the symbol for pi is universal - you could talk about symbols and how they work even if you don't know the language
Posted by Elizabeth (Member # 5218) on :
Cool, Jenny, thanks.
Then there is the whole earth itself. We could measure angles of shadows, like good old Eratosthenes.
Hmm. I could do Pi Week!
Posted by aka (Member # 139) on :
Oh, it's only 25 more minutes here! 3/14 1:59:26.535. I think we should celebrate the right millisecond, don't you?
Posted by MEC (Member # 2968) on :
3.141592653589793, that's as far as I've bothered to memorize.
Posted by Happy Camper (Member # 5076) on :
Heh, pi is fun. My birthdate (US date) is found starting at position 3035521.
Posted by Mr.Funny (Member # 4467) on :
3.141592653589793238462643383279502884197169399375105820974944... that's all that I have memorized...
Posted by Dragon (Member # 3670) on :
Happy Pi day!!
(My friend memorized it to the 50th digit... she's crazy)
Posted by Elizabeth (Member # 5218) on :
I have trouble remembering 3.19
(little joke, but if it were four digits, I would be sunk)
Posted by Zamphyr (Member # 6213) on :
Pi was a strangely engrosing movie, kinda like a Da Vinci code for math nerds or Jews.
*runs to put it in the DVD player*
Posted by pooka (Member # 5003) on :
oh man, I had dinner with 3 math majors and no one thought of this. Instead we had 4 ingredient peanut butter cookies. Posted by hansenj (Member # 4034) on :
We had the *best* sour cream apple pie in honor of the day! Straight from the oven with a scoop of Breyer's vanilla ice cream on it... *drools just thinking about it* Posted by luthe (Member # 1601) on :
This is a project a teacher was doing when I was a one to one paraprofessional in her classroom quite a few years ago. I worked with a boy who was severely learning disabled, and whose behavior was the most challenging I have dealt with.
What Ms. Klass does not recount is the sword fights the children had with the sticks they used for measuring. She does not mention that only about one out of ten kids in the class really had a clue what she was talking about. STILL, it was a very cool project. She now teaches workshops on it. Here is my favorite quote, from one of the brightest students in the class. It cracks me up:
"As for my participation in this project it was involuntary, but I am grateful for such a wonderful opportunity." - Eli
Posted by A Rat Named Dog (Member # 699) on :
So, how does a computer calculate pi precisely to ridiculous numbers of digits? I mean, does it first mathematically generate a circle, then measure its dimensions, and compare them? Or what?
Posted by sarcasticmuppet (Member # 5035) on :
Geoff posted in my thread!
*runs away*
Posted by Papa Moose (Member # 1992) on :
My younger brother (math teacher) asked me that around a month ago, and I'd always been a little curious about that myself, Geoff. A simple way would be to create a 2x10^n x 2x10^n grid, see how many points on the grid are within 10^n units from the center (Pythagorean theorem), then divide the total by 10^n. You'd need a pretty big square to get very many digits accurately, though, so I assume there's probably an easier way. Never tried to figure out what it might be.
Yes, there are a number of series that quickly converge towards pi.
Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :
Exactly -- but I prefer to link to examples, 'specially since I never remember the series in question. Posted by Bob the Lawyer (Member # 3278) on :
I realize it's a little late but I trust you all went Here and celebrated pi day by listening it being recited in various languages like french, cockney, cantonese, touchtone and monty python.
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