Let’s Talk About Something Sweet

It’s Pi Day so why not talk about some SWEET math?

For those of you new to this important math holiday, Pi Day is March 14th.  It is a day that all math lovers celebrate the wonderful things Pi has contributed to the math world… or a reason to eat pie.  Either way is fine with me.

Pi goes hand-in-hand with circles.  You cannot separate the two.  We use Pi to help us approximate the circumference and area of a circle and the surface area and volume of a sphere.

Many of you may remember from grade school or are currently learning that circumference is the distance around a circle.  The formula for circumference is C= πd, where d represents the diameter of the circle.  What’s neat about this equation is that any ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter will give you Pi — C/d = π.   You can pretty much manipulate any of the formulas below and get a ratio that equals to Pi.

In most circumstances, being irrational could present a problem for most people.  There is something intriguing about values that cannot be represented as ratio of two integers.  Now don’t confuse this with the ratio mentioned in the previous paragraph.  A ratio is merely a relationship between two values.  A number specifically is rational if the relationship compares to integers, and since Pi cannot be expressed this way, it is irrational.  The digits of Pi are infinite and do not have a clearly defined pattern to its digits.  One cool thing about the digits of Pi is that you can find your birthday (as a two digit month and two digit day) in its sequence.   Here give it a try: search for your birthday.

Pi is cool.  Plain and simple.  I hope you enjoyed the day!