Pi Day 2019

Happy "Pi Day"!  Not pie the pastry, but pi the number.  

The number pi is symbolized by the Greek letter π . We use pi to figure the circumference and area of circles and the volume of spheres and cylinders. The circumference of any circle is its diameter times pi.  The area of any circle is its radius squared time pi.  So what does that have to do with today?

Today is the 14th of March.  Otherwise expressed as 3/14 or 3.14.   Just like the number pi!  But, pi doesn't end at 3.14.  The number is thought to be infinite and non-repeating - no one has found the last digit of pi (currently at over one trillion digits and counting) and there is no sequence of numbers that repeats itself within pi!  Written to 100 decimal points pi is...

3.14159265358979323846264338327950288419716939937510582097494459230
78164062862089986280348253421170679...

In celebration of Pi Day, I bought two pies (the pastry) to share at work.  One blueberry pie

and one apple pie.

We are eating pie for mathematics!  This is not just because pi(e) is delicious!

Look at all that math!

Now for a little Pie (pi) related math.  The diameter (the distance across a circle from one side to the opposite side, passing through the center of the circle) of each of these pies is 8.5 inches.  To calculate the circumference (the distance around the perimeter of a circle) we just need to multiply 8.5 inches by pi (3.14).

                  Circumference  = π x diameter

                  Circumference = 3.14 x 8.5 inches

                  Circumference =  26.69 inches

I eat this pie in the name of mathematics!

To calculate the area of the pie we need to know the radius.  Radius is the distance from the center of a circle to the edge of the circle.  This number is one half of the diameter - so if the diameter of these pies is 8.5 inches, the radius would be 8.5 inches divided by 2, which equals 4.25 inches.  The formula for calculating the area of a circle is Area = pi times the radius squared (the radius times the radius). Expressed as a mathematical formula this is A= πr².

                 Area = πr²
           
                 Area = π x (radius x radius)

                 Area = 3.14 x (4.25 inches x 4.25 inches)

                 Area = 3.14 x (18.0625 inches²)

                 Area = 56.71625 inches²

That's 56.71625 square inches of delicious per pie!

If I eat 1/6th of the blueberry pie I am eating 9.4527 square inches of pie (56.71625 x 1/6 = 9.4527 inches²)!  

Math can be delicious!

Remember!  This is for the cause of furthering mathematical knowledge!

Happy Pi Day 2018!

Happy "Pi Day"!  Not pie the pastry, but pi the number.  

The number pi is symbolized by the Greek letter π . We use pi to figure the circumference and area of circles and the volume of spheres and cylinders. The circumference of any circle is its diameter times pi.  The area of any circle is its radius squared time pi.  So what does that have to do with today?

Today is the 14th of March.  Otherwise expressed as 3/14 or 3.14.   Just like the number pi!   But, pi doesn't end at 3.14.  The number is thought to be infinite and non-repeating - no one has found the last digit of pi (currently at over one trillion digits and counting) and there is no sequence of numbers that repeats itself within pi!  Written to 100 decimal points pi is...

3.14159265358979323846264338327950288419716939937510582097494459230 78164 
062862089986280348253421170679...

Just for fun I bought two pies to celebrate Pi Day.

It's about the math, not the deliciousness!

Now for a little Pie (pi) related math.  The diameter (the distance across a circle from one side to the opposite side, passing through the center of the circle) of each of these pies is 8.5 inches.  To calculate the circumference (the distance around the perimeter of a circle) we just need to multiply 8.5 inches by pi (3.14).

                  Circumference  = π x diameter

                  Circumference = 3.14 x 8.5 inches

                  Circumference =  26.69 inches

To calculate the area of the pie we need to know the radius.  Radius is the distance from the center of a circle to the edge of the circle.  This number is one half of the diameter - so if the diameter of these pies is 8.5 inches, the radius would be 8.5 inches divided by 2, which equals 4.25 inches.  The formula for calculating the area of a circle is Area = pi times the radius squared (the radius times the radius). Expressed as a mathematical formula this is A= πr².

                 Area = πr²
           
                 Area = π x (radius x radius)

                 Area = 3.14 x (4.25 inches x 4.25 inches)

                 Area = 3.14 x (18.0625 inches²)

                 Area = 56.71625 inches²

That's 56.71625 square inches of delicious per pie!

Check out all that delicious math!

I hate to admit it , but I can never remember pi past five decimal points.  I only remember that much because of a chant that I learned in college.  From 1993 to 1997 I attended the Illinois Institute of Technology.  One of the school chants was:

Tangent, secant, cosine, sine
3.14159
i, pi, cube root 3
Rock 'em, sock 'em IIT!

Go Scarlet Hawks! 

To learn more about Pi Day and how to celebrate the event please visit Pi Day's official website.

Happy Pi Day 2017!

Happy Pi Day!  What is that you ask?


Pi is a number - expressed to the ten-thousandths place it read as 3.1415.  The circumference of any circle is its diameter times pi.  The area of any circle is its radius squared time pi.  So what does that have to do with today?


Today is the 14th of March.  Otherwise expressed as 3/14 or 3.14.   Just like the number pi. 




Just for fun I bought two pies to celebrate Pi Day.

Celebrating Pi Day with blueberry pie (left) and caramel apple pie (right)

 
Now for a little Pie (pi) related math.  The diameter (the distance across a circle from one side to the opposite side, passing through the center of the circle) of each of these pies is 8.5 inches.  To calculate the circumference (the distance around the perimeter of a circle) we just need to multiply 8.5 inches by pi (3.14).


                  Circumference  = π x diameter

                  Circumference = 3.14 x 8.5 inches

                  Circumference =  26.69 inches

To calculate the area of the pie we need to know the radius.  Radius is the distance from the center of a circle to the edge of the circle.  This number is one half of the diameter - so if the diameter of these pies is 8.5 inches, the radius would be 8.5 inches divided by 2, which equals 4.25 inches.  The formula for calculating the area of a circle is Area = pi times the radius squared (the radius times the radius). Expressed as a mathematical formula this is A= πr².

                 Area = πr²
           
                 Area = π x (radius x radius)

                 Area = 3.14 x (4.25 inches x 4.25 inches)

                 Area = 3.14 x (18.0625 inches²)

                 Area = 56.71625 inches²

That's 56.71625 square inches of delicious per pie!

Math makes pie more delicious!

To learn more about Pi Day and how to celebrate the event please visit the official website of Pi Day.

Happy Pi Day!

Happy Pi Day!  What is that you ask?

Pi is a number - expressed to the ten-thousandths place it read as 3.1415.  The circumference of any circle is its diameter times pi.  The are of any circle is its radius squared time pi.  So what does that have to do with today?

Today is the 14th of March.  Otherwise expressed as 3/14 or 3.14.   Just like the number pi. 


To learn more about Pi Day and how to celebrate the event please visit the official website of Pi Day.

Cutting Circles, Pi, and Pie

On Saturday (14 MAR) I joined other members of the Mid-Mitten Wild Ones Chapter at the Chippewa Nature Center to construct wooden oriole feeders, bee nesting blocks made of drilled pieces of lumber, and bee nesting boxes like the one below.

Bee nesting box at the Saginaw Chippewa Academy - Summer 2014

Because this is my design for a bee nesting tower, I was in charge of this part of the construction.  I brought all of the necessary materials and tools to construct seven of these structures.  Three of the structures were purchased by Wild Ones' members, three were purchased by ITC Holdings to place in rain gardens and at their corporate headquarters, and the final structure is being donated to the Chippewa Nature Center.

I wanted to get lots of photographs to detail the build, but I was too busy working most of the time.  Lucy Chargot (Mid-Mitten Chapter President) took a few photos including this one.  I am standing to the left with a drill in my hand - the most tie consuming part of constructing these bee houses is drilling and chiseling out the holes through the 4 x 6 posts.

Working on 4 x 6 posts for the bee nesting boxes - photo by Lucy Chargot

The tubes going through the posts are made of 3" Schedule 30 PVC pipe.  This pipe has an outside diameter of 3.25 inches so I use a holesaw with a 3.25 inch diameter to drill through the posts.  The saw can only cut through about 1.5 inches of the post at a time so it is necessary to use a gouge to chisel out the excess material.

Chiseling out the holes through the wood is the hardest part of the job.

Eventually we had a total of 20 holes drilled/chiseled out on the seven posts - six of the posts had three holes in each, one member wanted a post with only two holes.

Drilling out the holes is a multi-step process - Drill, chisel, Drill, chisel, drill.

The other part of constructing these bee nesting boxes consisted of cutting and gluing up the PVC pipes that fit through the hole.  I cut the pipes at home with a compound-miter saw.  This made it easy to cut each pipe at a consistent angle (30 degrees).  If you are only cutting a few pieces this can easily be done with a hacksaw.  End-caps are glued on using PVC glue.  The outside of the pipes can be sanded or painted with a PVC paint

A pile of the completed PVC pipes waiting to be installed in the posts

After the glue has dried, the pipe can be filled with hollow stems, sections of bamboo, twigs with a hollow center, or in this case cardboard tubes made as bee nesting tubes.

Each piece of pipe was packed with cardboard nesting tubes

The next time I make one of these nesting boxes I plan to take detailed photographs of the process.

One last thing about Saturday.   It was Pi Day!   What that you ask?

Pi is a number - expressed to the ten-thousandths place it read as 3.1415.  The circumference of any circle is its diameter times pi.  The are of any circle is its radius squared time pi.  So what does that have to do with Saturday?

It was March 14th 2015.  3/14/15.  3.1415.  So how did we celebrate, besides cutting lots of circles?  With pie of course!

Happy Pi Day - enjoying some pie