Founded in 1988 by physicist Larry Shaw, Pi Day is observed annually on March 14 since 3, 1, and 4 are the first three significant figures of π. To celebrate Pi Day 2023 (14.3.23) we held two events for our wonderful Year 7 students.
- 1st place: Viki - Apple pie (Fairfield)
- 2nd place: Beatrice - Apple cream pie (Fleming)
- 3rd place: Oliver - Pulled beef pie (Fairfield)
During our period 6 lesson, our Year 7 students gathered in the lecture theatre to witness selected students from each of the four houses reciting the irrational number pi to as many decimal places as possible. The effort and persistence demonstrated by these students has been remarkable and the audience was blown away by the results.
- 1st place: Joy - 404 decimal places (Muir)
- 2nd place: Xavier - 201 decimal places (Fleming)
- 3rd place: Renn Kai - 127 decimal places (Fleming)
Well done to everyone that took part and we hope you remember Pi next time you're eating pie!
What is Pi?
Pi (often represented by the lower-case Greek letter π), one of the most well-known mathematical constants, is the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter. For any circle, the distance around the edge is a little more than three times the distance across.
Probably no symbol in mathematics has evoked as much mystery, romanticism, misconception and human interest as the number pi.
(William L. Schaaf, Nature and History of Pi)
Typing π into a calculator and pressing ENTER will yield the result 3.141592654, not because this value is exact, but because a calculator’s display is often limited to 10 digits. Pi is actually an irrational number (a decimal with no end and no repeating pattern) that is most often approximated with the decimal 3.14 or the fraction 22/7 (https://www.piday.org/learn-about-pi/).