It takes a visionary to see the possibilities of an ancient ratio, a date in March and all forms of pie (dessert, pizza and otherwise), but Bay Area local Larry Shaw saw the potential in pi.
Shaw, the technical curator at the Exploratorium for 33 years, is known as the first to come up with the connection between the number pi (3.14...) and March 14, now known as Pi Day. As Exploratorium lore would recount, it was at a staff retreat back in 1988 when Shaw first came up with the idea to take the endless 3.14 figure, eventually turning into an internationally celebrated, math- and pie-centric holiday.
"With teaching," Shaw said, "you're looking for any kind of hook you can get — especially with kids."
It also didn't hurt that March 14 is Albert Einstein's birthday, to give the holiday some extra oomph...
The day has since evolved from its humble, locally-held roots at the Exploration. March 14 became recognized by Congress as National Pi Day as of 2009, and has continued to become more of a cultural phenomenon as the years pass. Pies are known to sell out on March 14, while pizza shops have also gotten in on the act, with many offering discounted slices (generally themed around the 3.14 figure).
Education, politics, and anything else that catches my attention.
Thursday, March 14, 2019
Pi Day
We celebrated Pi Day at school in a few different ways, including pi-digits-recitation and pie-eating contests at lunch. What I didn't know is the lore claiming that Pi Day comes from Northern California:
Papa Murphy's was slammed last night, so yep, people are buying pizza too. We did, and then we had homemade apple pi.
ReplyDeleteA 3rd or 4th-grade project for pi day:
ReplyDeleteIf a school has a gym with big circles on the floor, this is perfect, otherwise, someone has to create really big circles somewhere on campus:
1) Give kids string, scissors, and a way to measure both.
2) In the gym, have them lay out and cut a piece of string to measure the diameter of a big circle.
3) Have them place a second piece of string along the outside of the same circle and cut it to get the circumference.
4) Measure both strings and divide.
5) As a statistical exercise, average everyone's result.
My guess is that they would get pi within at least 1/100ths of an inch, maybe better.