Pi Day

Okay. Yes, I know that Pi Day is March the 14th and it is April now. What can I say? I'm a little behind. But nevertheless, here it is.

This year we celebrated Pi Day for the first time ever. We had lots of fun with it too.

First of all, we talked about Pi. I explained that it is an irrational number, which means that the digits never end or repeat in any known pattern. It is the ratio of the circumference of a circle to the circle's diameter. For any circle of any size if you divide the distance around it by its diameter you will always get the exact same number. And that number is pi. I printed out the first few hundred digits of pi. Here they are:

3.1415926535897932384626433832795028841971693993751058209749445923078164062862 08998628034825342117067982148086513282306647093844609550582231725359408128481        117450284102701938521105559644622948954930381964428810975665933446128475648233 786783165271201909145648566923460348610454326648213393607260249141273724587006 606315588174881520920962829254091715364367892590360011330530548820466521384146 951941511609433057270365759591953092186117381932611793105118548074462379962749 567351885752724891227938183011949129833673362440656643086021394946395224737190 702179860943702770539217176293176752384674818467669405132000568127145263560827 785771342757789609173637178721468440901224953430146549585371050792279689258923 542019956112129021960864034418159813629774771309960518707211349999998372978049 951059731732816096318595024459455346908302642522308253344685035261931188171010 003137838752886587533208381420617177669147303598253490428755468731159562863882 353787593751957781857780532171226806613001927876611195909216420198938095257201 065485863278865936153381827968230301952035301852968995773622599413891249721775 283479131515574857242454150695950829533116861727855889075098381754637464939319 255060400927701671139009848824012858361603563707660104710181942955596198946767 837449448255379774726847104047534646208046684259069491293313677028989152104752

To reinforce this, we made a necklace - Yet another Pinterest inspired project. This is a link to the website where I found the original idea: http://mathforum.org/teachers/middle/activities/pi_day.html


Dr. X made the pendant in the center of the necklace out of modeling clay. This pendant represents the whole number 3. He used a toothpick to scratch a pi symbol onto one side of the wet clay and the number 3 onto the other side.

 

Next, he used the toothpick to make a hole from one side of the pendant to the other for the string to go through. We went ahead and, very carefully, strung this onto our necklace. You might want to let yours dry first. We didn't want to wait. We were just extra careful as we worked with it, making sure to leave it lying flat on the table.

 







Time for some beads! I asked Dr. X to assign each digit, 0 through 9, with a color of bead. Using our printout of pi, Dr. X strung a bead for each digit of the decimal pi. The tricky part was getting the beads on the left side of the necklace to flow around from the right side. We ended up sliding the center pendant (whole number 3) to the left side of the necklace, making sure to leave some slack, and stringing our beads to the length that we wanted. Once all of the beads were strung, we threaded the left side (our slack) through the beads that were at the end to transfer them to the left side of our necklace. This way, the digits of pi continue all of the way around the necklace in the correct order. Confusing? I wish I had gotten a picture of this last step but at the time that we made this I did not realize that I would be turning it into a tutorial. Feel free to post any questions and I will do my best to answer them.

We got a little carried away with the stringing of the beads. So 
Dr. X ended up with a really long necklace.

 



After making our necklace, we read Sir Cumference and the Dragon of Pi and Sir Cumference and the First Round Table.

We watched this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbUPyUi5YtM
I have to warn you... That song kinda sticks in your head. You might find yourself walking around singing it. This can generate some strange looks for you but it's good for the kiddos. If they're singing it then they know the formulas. Mission accomplished!

I found this cute little cartoon online:

And what better way to end our day than some yummy homemade pizza pie. Yum!

Questions and comments are always welcome. You can also email me at adventuresofahomeschoolmama@gmail.com.

Thanks for stopping by! Please make sure to check back. I'm just getting started but I will be adding new stuff daily.