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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:
- the Happy Birthday, Einstein! video series
- Happy Birthday, Einstein (Part 2)
- Happy Birthday, Einstein (Part 3)
- Happy Birthday, Einstein (Part 4)
- Albert Einstein’s math biography
- Math-related quotes from Albert Einstein
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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.”
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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!
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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.
Wednesday Wisdom features a quote to inspire my fellow homeschoolers and math education peeps. Today’s quote is from Luke Anderson, via TeachPi.org. Background photo courtesy of Robert Couse-Baker (CC BY 2.0) via Flickr.
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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.
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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:
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