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Happy Birthday, General Relativity
Don’t forget that Pi Day is also Albert Einstein’s birthday! And this year marks the 100th anniversary of his Theory of General Relativity. So Science Magazine has a special Einstein issue online, featuring this interactive comic:
You may also enjoy:
Pi: Who Needs That Many Digits?
From Numberphile: Pi is famously calculated to trillions of digits – but Dr. James Grime says 39 is enough.
How you round it off makes a difference:
An extra note from Dr. Grime: “Since pi39 ends in 0, you may think we could use pi38 instead, which has even fewer digits. Unfortunately, the rounding errors of pi38 are ten times larger than the rounding errors of pi39 — more than a hydrogen atom. So that extra decimal place makes a difference, even if it’s 0.”
Pi and Buffon’s Matches
From Numberphile: Dr Tony Padilla’s unique (and low budget) twist on the Buffon’s Needle experiment to learn the true value of Pi.
For a kid-friendly version of this experiment, try throwing food:
Do you have a favorite family activity for celebrating Pi Day? I’d love to hear it!
Unending Digits… Why Not Keep It Simple?
Unending digits …
Why not keep it simple, like
Twenty-two sevenths?—Luke Anderson
Math Poetry Activity
Encourage your students to make their own Pi Day haiku with these tips from Mr. L’s Math:
And remember, Pi Day is also Albert Einstein’s birthday! Check out this series of short videos about his life and work: Happy Birthday, Einstein.
CREDITS: Today’s quote is from Luke Anderson, via TeachPi.org. Background photo courtesy of Robert Couse-Baker via Flickr, text added (CC BY 2.0).
Pi Day: It’s an Irrational Holiday
I just discovered this fun Pi Day song from The Singing Nerd. Definitely need to add him to my YouTube subscriptions.
Hat tip: Singing Banana.
Pi Makes a River Bend
From Numberphile: “Sinuosity is a measure of how ‘bendy’ a river is. It is the length of the river divided by the direct route. Featuring Dr. James Grime.”
Update
After posting this video, Dr. Grimes and Lawrence Roberts began collecting and analyzing data about real-world rivers. It turns out the pi theory of sinuosity is too simple. Read about their results:
Calculating Pi with Real Pies
From Numberphile: “How accurately can we calculate Pi using hundreds of REAL pies? This video features Matt Parker, who believes this is the world’s most accurate pie-based Pi calculation.”
Pi Day is coming soon. Maybe you’d like to try a pi project with your family? Check out my Pi Day Roundup of links.
A Bit About Pi
From Numberphile: “Some stuff about Pi, the ‘celebrity number’. This video features maths-loving author Alex Bellos and Professor Roger Bowley from the University of Nottingham.”
Did you notice the error? It was supposed to be “a”…
Math Teachers at Play #83 via CavMaths
The new Math Teachers at Play math education blog carnival is up for your browsing pleasure. Each month, we feature activities, lessons, and games about math topics from preschool through high school. Check it out!
[Photo by Steve Bowbrick. (CC BY 2.0)]
Hello, and welcome to the 83rd Edition of the monthly blog carnival “Math(s) Teachers at Play”.
It is traditional to start with some number facts around the edition number, 83 is pretty cool, as it happens. Its prime, which sets it apart from all those lesser compound numbers. Not only that, its a safe prime, a Chen prime and even a Sophie Germain prime, you can’t get much cool than that can you? Well yes, yes you can, because 83 is also an Eisenstein prime!!!!
Those of you who work in base 36 will know it for its famous appearance in Shakespeare’s Hamlet: “83, or not 83, that is the question…..”
