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Education Humor

Let Them Eat Pi

Saturday, I spent an hour listening to students practice their pieces for an upcoming piano recital. The kids were respectful. They watched and listened to each other; the youngest learned to approach the bench properly and how to bow after completing their pieces.

At the end of the session, the piano teacher said to one of her oldest pupils, “See you Monday.”

He responded, “See you on Pi Day.”

Monkey’s ears perked up. “Oh yeah,” he said with delight. “Monday is Pi Day.”

The two boys started yapping.

Together they tossed out numbers. In perfect unison.

“3.141592653589…”

It was like some weird mathematical duet.

“I memorized the first 13 numbers after the decimal,” my son said.

So that is how I came to learn that today – 3.14 – is Pi Day.

Get it?

Just imagine how amazing this will be in a few years. Like on 3.14.15 at 9:26 am when 8 digits represent in order!

Something tells me a lot of folks will be eating pie in math class on that day.

But let’s celebrate today. The now.

So Happy Pi Day everyone.

That is about as much math as you’ll ever get from this twit. 😉

And now, let us sing!

25 thoughts on “Let Them Eat Pi

  1. Happy Pi day to you too! As a math teacher, I would love to celebrate it with my students, but it almost always (this year included) falls during our Spring Break. Unfortunately, 3/14/15 is on a Saturday. 🙁 Still won’t be able to celebrate with my students.

    1. Oh no! That is a disaster! But leave it to a math teacher to have already figured it out!

      Take heart. I’m sure millions of math lovers will be sprawled about, all over the world, watching some digital device… waiting.

      Perhaps there might be a special convening of The Pi Club on that day held in a local library. I bet a lot of people would actually attend. I know they have contests to see who knows the most digits by heart. So many things one could do.

      And, of course, it happens twice, right? 🙂

      1. You could celebrate Pi Day on the Friday, though, when it’s already 3.14.15 across the dateline in Asia.

        I didn’t even plan my wedding this far in advance.

        Or my children.

        And I’m an English teacher.

        I’ll just make an ungraceful exit now.

      2. IM:

        I swear I thought about the whole Asia thing, and then I realized I chose to write about Pi when tens of thousands of people are actually suffering in Japan. Right now.

        So I’ll just make my ungraceful exit now. First.

  2. I think it’s very cool to celebrate PI day. My daughter came home from school last year all aglow about PI day, and I had no idea what she was talking about. I got the “Srsly mom” look, and I said, shrugging, “Well, we didn’t celebrate PI day or cool things like that when I was in school.” We didn’t. So, more power to the math people (or, more power to the math, people) for getting kids’ interest and having a little bit of fun with numbers!

    1. I think it’s really cool. My son and some of his buddies are having a throw down to see who can memorize the most digits after the decimal point. As an English teacher, I cannot ever imagine finding joy in this activity, but it has him captivated. Hey, whatever it takes to keep them motivated. 😉

  3. There are in fact two Pi Days in the year. March 14th and 22 July, the closest fractional representation of Pi being 22/7.

    Having said that, 22/7 is 3.1428, and March 14th 2028 is a Tuesday, so Ms H could celebrate with her students then (assuming she’s still teaching then).

    1. Doesn’t 22/7 that imply she would be teaching in July? I’m thinking she’s not.

      But what do I know.

      I’m an English teacher.

      I have absolutely no business posting on this topic at all.

      I should just stick to apple pie.

      1. I think what lowsaltfoods is saying is that I could celebrate on 3/14/28 because that is the decimal approximation for the fractional approximation of 22/7 for Pi. 2028 is 17 years from now… I will be in my 60’s, but probably still teaching. Unless I win the lottery before then! 🙂

      2. Mrs. H

        Thank goodness you and lowsalt understand each other!

        And only 17 more years until you do the whole Pi/pie thing with your students.

        Just think of how much material you can gather until then.

        Do you think you might be able to write a better song? Or maybe that could be one of the activities. 😉

  4. It just so happens that my son’s 14th birthday is today! We are big fans of 3.14 Pi day and birthday! I happen to love math, so it was a great day when he learned in school that his birthday is Pi. Proud moment for me! Thanks, as always, for sharing, Renee!

  5. The circle is a complete anomaly. It is a symbol of wholeness, a boundary, a completeness. It is a finite space. Yet pi is infinite. Finite and infinite at the same time? No, I already read everything Herman Hesse ever wrote so the answer is not there, that’s for sure.

    I guess someone has to leave the stupid Charlie six-pack male comment so here goes: I stick with apple or pecan, thank you very much.

  6. Math makes my head hurt… but the Pi song you posted (and the otherworldly composition which converted the digits to notes which is causing a bit of a copyright hubbub on NPR and YouTube today) are very cool.

  7. I love your posts! My daughter, who is also an English aficionado, would love this – it is about the same amount of space she reserves in her brain for math as well 🙂

  8. I did not know about pi day, but if I had I probably would protest on general grounds that I think pi has something to do with math, which I don’t believe in. I’m a matheist.

  9. The math teacher announced in the staff lounge that today was Pi Day and informed all that he brought in pies for the kids to possibly throw in his face….then he [a little too obviously] paused waiting for someone to insert their foot into their mouth and ask a form of stupid. I have learned, thanks to many foot inserting moments, that silence is best left alone and quickly figured out what he was referring to was a day to celebrate 3.14 and not the Betty Crockers. That could’ve been awkward. Thanks for posting the song!

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