First 100 digits of Pi
3.1415926535 8979323846 2643383279 5028841971 6939937510 5820974944 5923078164 0628620899 8628034825 3421170679...
Pi is the ratio of any circle’s circumference to its diameter. In other words Pi is the number you get when you divide the circumference of a circle (the distance around the circle) by its diameter (the distance across). It is typically written as 3.14.Because pi is 3.14159….some schools hold their celebrations until 1:59. Pi is called an irrational number; it has an infinite number of digits.
March 14th also happens to be the birth date of Albert Einstein—which makes it a double math celebration. Time for a math party filled with math challenges.
A brief history of Pi:
- Ancient Babylonians determined the area of a circle by taking 3 times the square of its radius, which gave the value of pi, 4,000 years ago. One Babylonian tablet found, revealed a value of 3.125 for pi, which is a closer estimate.
- In 1706, William Jones began using The Greek letter π.
- Euler made the symbol popular in 1737.
- 1761, Lambert proved that Pi was irrational; it cannot be written as a ratio of integer numbers.
- In 1882, Lindeman proved that Pi was transcendental, that is, that Pi is not the root of any algebraic equation with rational coefficients. This discovery proved that you cannot "square a circle", which was a problem that occupied many mathematicians up to that time.
Activities to celebrate Pi day:
Who can memorize and recite Pi to the most digits without a mistake!
Read a variety of stories involving the use of measuring circles.
Read about ancient Egypt and Archimedes
Measure the circumference, diameter and radius of objects around the house.
Only eat circular food.
Create your own Pi T shirts using Fabric Paint or Fabric Markers
Pi Bracelets, with each bead color representing a number
Make a pizza measuring the circumference, diameter and radius.
For dessert, of course, you must have pie!
Buffon's Needle is an interesting pi experiments. In Buffon's Needle experiment you can drop a needle on a lined sheet of paper. If you keep track of how many times the needle lands on a line, it turns out to be directly related to the value of Pi.
Buffon's Needle Simulation Applet (Michael J. Hurben)
Buffon's Needle (George Reese, Office for Mathematics, Science and Technology Education University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana)
Look for other Pi activities at the following websites: http://www.homegrownhearts.com/piday.htm
http://www.education-world.com/a_lesson/lesson/lesson335.shtml
http://www.exploratorium.edu/pi/
http://www.teachpi.org/activities.htm
Did you know Pi has its own limerick?
Now there is an ancient Greek letter
and I think that none other is better
It isn't too tall
its in fact, very small
But its digits, they go on forever!
-Author unknown
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