Merry Pi Day

I would ask that you all stop what you are doing at 1:59 today and give a moment of silence to the greatest of all irrational numbers and remember all that it has given us.

What has it given us? You may ask, well in addition to our mathematical uses it has done something far more important, it has allowed math teacher to think that they are funny one time a year.

∏ r squared, no pi are round,  is by no means funny, but that attempt at a pun has lightened the mood in many math classrooms. It has also helped countless students to recognise that math teachers are in fact not human but robots who are incapable of understanding human humor.

But back to pi day.

You may ask, how do you celebrate pi day in your family? Everyones traditions are different of course but in our family we would get up at 3:14 and begin by a reading of I Kings 7, 23

And he made a molten sea, ten cubits from the one brim to the other: it was round all about, and his height was five cubits: and a line of thirty cubits did compass it about.

This early connection to pi in the building of the temple helped remind us of just how long pi has existed.

We would then sit in a circle and take turns reciting the numbers of pi to about 1000 or until someone missed one. That person would be flogged with a stick the length of the radius of the circle.

Mother would then read one of her favoret pi poems. The one i remember the best is

Now I, even I, would celebrate in rhymes inept,
the great immortal Syracusan rivall'd nevermore
who in his wondrous lore passed on before
left men his guidance how to circles mensurate.

By A.C. Ore

But of course the kids always prefered

Here once was a girl who loved piI never could quite fathom whyTo her it's a wonderTo me just a numberIts beauty revealed by and bySo, I will let you get back to the festivities.