Wednesday 14 March 2007

Happy Pi Day!

Today is March 14 .... 3.14 ..... in other words, Pi Day!
(It's also Albert Einstein's birthday!)

The Greek letter Pi is the symbol for the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter. It is approximately 22/7 and is usually calculated to 3 digits, 3.14, and is the most revered mathematical constant in the known universe.
Remember your Grade 9 math class?

With the use of computers, Pi has been calculated to over 1 trillion digits past the decimal. That's a whole lot of numbers!

So celebrate Pi Day with nerds worldwide by singing this little song, to the tune of "O Christmas Tree", all together now:

Oh, number Pi
Oh, number Pi
Your digits are unending,
Oh, number Pi
Oh, number Pi
No pattern are you sending.
You're three point one four one five nine,
And even more if we had time,
Oh, number Pi
Oh, number Pi
For circle lengths unbending.

Oh, number Pi
Oh, number Pi
You are a number very sweet,
Oh, number Pi
Oh, number Pi
Your uses are so very neat.
There's 2 Pi r and Pi r squared,
A half a circle and you're there,
Oh, number Pi
Oh, number Pi
We know that Pi's a tasty treat.

(Lyrics by LaVern Christianson, math teacher Windom, MN, USA)

15 comments:

  1. That will have to be one of the songs at our family's next "homeschool assembly" (or suppertime). Maybe we will pick up a pie on the way home tonight.

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  2. Craver: "My, what a lovely American accent; talk some more!" Hope you enjoy the pie. Blueberry? Rhubarb?

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  3. very good. I love the song. I will try and remember it if I ever need to teach Pi (in primary!!!!!)

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  4. Blueberry or apple pie good....Pi for me not so good.
    Math and I really aren't on friendly terms.
    I know some homeschoolers who would get a kick out of this song. May I share it with them?

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  5. You are as mad as a March Hare and as mad as a box of frogs!

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  6. Oh dear! I think you need some vallium!!!

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  7. On the ABC news yesterday, they showed a guy who has memorized Pi to 100,000 places. I can't believe anyone could do that, let alone want to!

    I laughed at your comment to me about the Canada geese. I guess they're not endangered, then, huh? There are so many of them here in our area, that I sometimes wonder if there are any left up there!

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  8. You'd have to be a genius to remember it

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  9. You lost me at Pi...and now I will have that song stuck in my head the rest of the day!!! I flunked 9th grade math...as well as 10th grade, 11th grade and 12th grade math.

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  10. there was a picture in the Wsshpost Express today....some DC school's math class arranged themselves into the PI symbol on the front lawn in honor of Pi Da, and somebody took their picture. If i could figure out how to put a photo in a comment, I'd send it to you for your archives....

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  11. "in honor of Pi DAY" that is...and to think i'm an editor in real life....

    xtreme

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  12. Nice interesting song...a well composed tribute for Pi!

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  13. I had to LOL on this, Ex-S, because this was on the evening news on Wednesday and Charles Gibson showed a man who took 16 hours to recite 100,000 of the numbers in sequence from memory. Apparently that's the record thus far. Unbelievable!

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  14. Oooh, we have a goldfish named PI. After a dude from ABC's Beauty and the Geek. His name was Pao, but everytime he introduced himself, he made the symbol for PI with his hands and so we had to name our goofiest fish after him.

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