The Big Birds had a wonderful day on Tuesday celebrating pi. Yes, we were a day late (March 14 is officially Pi day because the date is 3/14 or 3.14) but it gave everyone time to memorize a few extra digits. Students either measured the circles to discover the ratio between the circumference and the diameter (3.14:1) or they used Pi to predict (and then check empirically) the area of a circle of the volume of a sphere. After that, they were able to visit Pi sites on the internet, make a Pi day card, or create Pi art.
We finished with our second annual Pi eating contest. As a person who often gets her own phone number wrong, I was personally amazed by the memorization feat of many of the Big Birds. The spirit of the contest was fun and supportive and many students chose to share the digits they knew even if they knew they weren't going to win. Several students froze and then, amazingly, were able to recover and continue after 5-10 second pauses. Our winner recited Pi perfectly to 66 digits!
Yes, it's all silly. After all, few of us (including engineers) ever need to use Pi beyond the thousandths place. But there's something exciting about a number that never ends and never follows a pattern. There's something amazing about a number that appears so many places in nature, reminding us that we didn't invent math, we just created the mathematical language to explain what was already there. This is one of those times that we get to celebrate the wonder and awe of mathematics (and show off those memorization skills.)
P.S. My current favorite math joke: Pi and i are at home having an argument. "You're so irrational," says i. "Get real." replies Pi.
Coincidentally, both the 2010 and 2011 Pi Eating Champions were Herons:
The Rookery 
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