Hello and welcome to a sunny Saturday at the Wannaskan Almanac. Today is March 14th, aka 3.14, aka Pi Day!
Happy Birthday to Albert Einstein who was born on this day in 1879.
If you love math and circles, this is your day to celebrate the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter, otherwise known as Pi.
If you vaguely recall plugging Pi into some kind of formula for a long-forgotten math assignment, and if pressed, might be able to recall its 3.14 value, you're in luck! Today is the day you can have your pi(e) and eat it too.
Admittedly, I belong to the latter camp of pi(e) lovers. I had a different topic in mind for today's post but when I attended a meeting of the Star of the North Toastmasters club (which, by the way, meets twice monthly in the Wannaskan area) and learned that today was Pi Day, I knew I had to give it the limelight.
A Brief History of Pi (Ï€)
"Pi (Ï€) has been known for almost 4000 years—but even if we calculated the number of seconds in those 4000 years and calculated Ï€ to that number of places, we would still only be approximating its actual value. Here’s a brief history of finding Ï€.
The ancient Babylonians calculated the area of a circle by taking 3 times the square of its radius, which gave a value of pi = 3. One Babylonian tablet (ca. 1900–1680 BC) indicates a value of 3.125 for Ï€, which is a closer approximation.
The Rhind Papyrus (ca.1650 BC) gives us insight into the mathematics of ancient Egypt. The Egyptians calculated the area of a circle by a formula that gave the approximate value of 3.1605 for π.
The first calculation of Ï€ was done by Archimedes of Syracuse (287–212 BC), one of the greatest mathematicians of the ancient world. Archimedes approximated the area of a circle by using the Pythagorean Theorem to find the areas of two regular polygons: the polygon inscribed within the circle and the polygon within which the circle was circumscribed. Since the actual area of the circle lies between the areas of the inscribed and circumscribed polygons, the areas of the polygons gave upper and lower bounds for the area of the circle. Archimedes knew that he had not found the value of Ï€ but only an approximation within those limits. In this way, Archimedes showed that Ï€ is between 3 1/7 and 3 10/71.
A similar approach was used by Zu Chongzhi (429–501), a brilliant Chinese mathematician and astronomer. Zu Chongzhi would not have been familiar with Archimedes’ method—but because his book has been lost, little is known of his work. He calculated the value of the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter to be 355/113. To compute this accuracy for Ï€, he must have started with an inscribed regular 24,576-gon and performed lengthy calculations involving hundreds of square roots carried out to 9 decimal places.
Mathematicians began using the Greek letter π in the 1700s. Introduced by William Jones in 1706, use of the symbol was popularized by Leonhard Euler, who adopted it in 1737.
An eighteenth-century French mathematician named Georges Buffon devised a way to calculate π based on probability. You can try it yourself at the Exploratorium's Pi Toss exhibit." (Source)
My favorite part of that explanation is the name of the French mathematician, which I initially misread as buffoon, but is actually French for buffalo.
At Toastmasters, the Jokemaster told two Pi jokes:
- What do you get when you take the sun and divide its circumference by its diameter?
Pi in the sky.
- Did you know that 3.14% of sailors are pi-rates?
Our Table Topics Master really put the group to task by asking those called upon to expound on Archimedes' discovery. Fortunately, I'd given a speech and was spared the 2-minute torture. But Hubby, being one of the engineers of the group (and the other engineer having also given a speech) was the lucky duck to take a stab.
I'll tell you upfront that I was impressed. He described Archimedes frequenting the neighborhood spa and while he was relaxing in the warm waters, noticed the columns (a Greek invention, he pointed out). In between the columns he noticed arches and then imagined the polygons he could measure inside the arch and - voila! - the discovery of Pi.
I was waiting for the "Eureka!" moment but the two minutes of Table Topics riffing were up.
After the painful math questions, our Table Topics Master shifted gears to the other pi(e) topic that landed firmly in my comfort zone.
"What's the worst pie you've ever had?"
It was the perfect question for my fellow Toastmaster who, in fact, did not like pie. She pontificated on pumpkin before she settled on sour cream and raisin.
I love pumpkin pie. I had a dry, somewhat stringy squash pie once that was a bummer because it was my first squash-based pie. But I wouldn't say no to trying one again. I recall resisting sour cream and raisin pie for a long time, but once I tried it, I think I found it surprisingly tasty. Since childhood, I have been wary of mincemeat pie.
I remember learning about peanut butter pie from the movie The Joy Luck Club. I was fascinated with the persuasive powers suggested of a peanut butter pie, so I looked in my own Joy of Cooking cookbook and found a recipe for this delectable, and worthy, pie.
The Table Topics Master had one more topic. She called on a guest to discuss which beverage goes best with pie.
It made me wish I hadn't given a speech.
The visitor said milk and I had to agree. Milk is a palate cleanser, preparing one's mouth for this divine dish. Milk is the great neutralizer of all the drinks that could go with pie. It counteracts the richness of chocolate pies and peanut butter pies, cuts the tartness of berry pies, smooths out the sweetness of strawberry pie, or quickly washes down a bad pie. You really can't go wrong with milk.
Whether you're a pi lover or a pie lover, may we all find world peace over a piece of pi(e).
Happy Pi Day!
Kim
Happy Birthday to Albert Einstein who was born on this day in 1879.
If you love math and circles, this is your day to celebrate the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter, otherwise known as Pi.
If you vaguely recall plugging Pi into some kind of formula for a long-forgotten math assignment, and if pressed, might be able to recall its 3.14 value, you're in luck! Today is the day you can have your pi(e) and eat it too.
Admittedly, I belong to the latter camp of pi(e) lovers. I had a different topic in mind for today's post but when I attended a meeting of the Star of the North Toastmasters club (which, by the way, meets twice monthly in the Wannaskan area) and learned that today was Pi Day, I knew I had to give it the limelight.
A Brief History of Pi (Ï€)
"Pi (Ï€) has been known for almost 4000 years—but even if we calculated the number of seconds in those 4000 years and calculated Ï€ to that number of places, we would still only be approximating its actual value. Here’s a brief history of finding Ï€.
The ancient Babylonians calculated the area of a circle by taking 3 times the square of its radius, which gave a value of pi = 3. One Babylonian tablet (ca. 1900–1680 BC) indicates a value of 3.125 for Ï€, which is a closer approximation.
The Rhind Papyrus (ca.1650 BC) gives us insight into the mathematics of ancient Egypt. The Egyptians calculated the area of a circle by a formula that gave the approximate value of 3.1605 for π.
The first calculation of Ï€ was done by Archimedes of Syracuse (287–212 BC), one of the greatest mathematicians of the ancient world. Archimedes approximated the area of a circle by using the Pythagorean Theorem to find the areas of two regular polygons: the polygon inscribed within the circle and the polygon within which the circle was circumscribed. Since the actual area of the circle lies between the areas of the inscribed and circumscribed polygons, the areas of the polygons gave upper and lower bounds for the area of the circle. Archimedes knew that he had not found the value of Ï€ but only an approximation within those limits. In this way, Archimedes showed that Ï€ is between 3 1/7 and 3 10/71.
A similar approach was used by Zu Chongzhi (429–501), a brilliant Chinese mathematician and astronomer. Zu Chongzhi would not have been familiar with Archimedes’ method—but because his book has been lost, little is known of his work. He calculated the value of the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter to be 355/113. To compute this accuracy for Ï€, he must have started with an inscribed regular 24,576-gon and performed lengthy calculations involving hundreds of square roots carried out to 9 decimal places.
Mathematicians began using the Greek letter π in the 1700s. Introduced by William Jones in 1706, use of the symbol was popularized by Leonhard Euler, who adopted it in 1737.
An eighteenth-century French mathematician named Georges Buffon devised a way to calculate π based on probability. You can try it yourself at the Exploratorium's Pi Toss exhibit." (Source)
My favorite part of that explanation is the name of the French mathematician, which I initially misread as buffoon, but is actually French for buffalo.
At Toastmasters, the Jokemaster told two Pi jokes:
- What do you get when you take the sun and divide its circumference by its diameter?
Pi in the sky.
- Did you know that 3.14% of sailors are pi-rates?
Our Table Topics Master really put the group to task by asking those called upon to expound on Archimedes' discovery. Fortunately, I'd given a speech and was spared the 2-minute torture. But Hubby, being one of the engineers of the group (and the other engineer having also given a speech) was the lucky duck to take a stab.
I'll tell you upfront that I was impressed. He described Archimedes frequenting the neighborhood spa and while he was relaxing in the warm waters, noticed the columns (a Greek invention, he pointed out). In between the columns he noticed arches and then imagined the polygons he could measure inside the arch and - voila! - the discovery of Pi.
I was waiting for the "Eureka!" moment but the two minutes of Table Topics riffing were up.
After the painful math questions, our Table Topics Master shifted gears to the other pi(e) topic that landed firmly in my comfort zone.
"What's the worst pie you've ever had?"
It was the perfect question for my fellow Toastmaster who, in fact, did not like pie. She pontificated on pumpkin before she settled on sour cream and raisin.
I love pumpkin pie. I had a dry, somewhat stringy squash pie once that was a bummer because it was my first squash-based pie. But I wouldn't say no to trying one again. I recall resisting sour cream and raisin pie for a long time, but once I tried it, I think I found it surprisingly tasty. Since childhood, I have been wary of mincemeat pie.
I remember learning about peanut butter pie from the movie The Joy Luck Club. I was fascinated with the persuasive powers suggested of a peanut butter pie, so I looked in my own Joy of Cooking cookbook and found a recipe for this delectable, and worthy, pie.
The Table Topics Master had one more topic. She called on a guest to discuss which beverage goes best with pie.
It made me wish I hadn't given a speech.
The visitor said milk and I had to agree. Milk is a palate cleanser, preparing one's mouth for this divine dish. Milk is the great neutralizer of all the drinks that could go with pie. It counteracts the richness of chocolate pies and peanut butter pies, cuts the tartness of berry pies, smooths out the sweetness of strawberry pie, or quickly washes down a bad pie. You really can't go wrong with milk.
Whether you're a pi lover or a pie lover, may we all find world peace over a piece of pi(e).
Happy Pi Day!
On This Day
Historic Highlights (credits)
1991 - The Birmingham Six are released
The 6 men had been wrongly sentenced to life imprisonment in 1975 for the IRA Birmingham pub bombings.
1979 - Factory Plane Crash in China
At least 200 people are killed when a plane crashes into a factory in China. According to some sources, the plane had previously been stolen by the pilot who was not qualified to fly it.
1960 - The leaders of Germany and Israel confer for the first time
15 years after the end of World War II, West German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer and Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion met at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York.
1942 - For the first time in history, a dying patient's life is saved by penicillin
Although some claim that the pioneering trials at the Radcliffe Infirmary in Oxford, England resulted in the first cures using penicillin, Orvan Hess and John Bumstead are generally credited with the first documented successful treatment.
1910 - The Lakeview Gusher causes the largest accidental oil spill in history
The spill lasted 18 months and 9 million barrels of crude oil were released.
The 6 men had been wrongly sentenced to life imprisonment in 1975 for the IRA Birmingham pub bombings.
1979 - Factory Plane Crash in China
At least 200 people are killed when a plane crashes into a factory in China. According to some sources, the plane had previously been stolen by the pilot who was not qualified to fly it.
1960 - The leaders of Germany and Israel confer for the first time
15 years after the end of World War II, West German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer and Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion met at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York.
1942 - For the first time in history, a dying patient's life is saved by penicillin
Although some claim that the pioneering trials at the Radcliffe Infirmary in Oxford, England resulted in the first cures using penicillin, Orvan Hess and John Bumstead are generally credited with the first documented successful treatment.
1910 - The Lakeview Gusher causes the largest accidental oil spill in history
The spill lasted 18 months and 9 million barrels of crude oil were released.
Happy Birthday to You!🎶
1933 - Michael Caine, English actor, author
1879 - Albert Einstein, German/American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
1854 - Alexandru Macedonski, Romanian author, poet
1854 - Paul Ehrlich, German physician, Nobel Prize laureate
1681 - Georg Philipp Telemann, German composer
1879 - Albert Einstein, German/American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
1854 - Alexandru Macedonski, Romanian author, poet
1854 - Paul Ehrlich, German physician, Nobel Prize laureate
1681 - Georg Philipp Telemann, German composer
Remembering You
2014 - Tony Benn, English politician
1980 - Mohammad Hatta, Indonesian politician, 1st Vice President of Indonesia
1823 - John Jervis, 1st Earl of St Vincent, English Admiral
1803 - Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock, German poet
1980 - Mohammad Hatta, Indonesian politician, 1st Vice President of Indonesia
1823 - John Jervis, 1st Earl of St Vincent, English Admiral
1803 - Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock, German poet
Have some pi(e) in numerical form or with a dollop of whipped cream and make it a great Saturday!
Kim
You wouldn't happen to be enthused about quantum physics? You strike me as someone who might enjoy stuff like that, not that it's a bad trait, mind you. My favorite son-in-law is a Mathematics prof at Hamline U, and I like him. It's just that I knew a young woman several years ago who was smitten with quantum physics, and I've long thought you resemble her. If you are a Trekker too, that would seal it.
ReplyDeleteOh, when I read mention of Pi and the Pythagorean Theorem here, my eyes glossed over and I became feverish. I resembled Einstein in the picture above -- well less the hair on top and the color of it . . . and his lack of a beard. (I think my mother had a scratchy wool jacket like that too, but hers didn't have her name over the pocket like his has.) He has that faraway look like he's seen 'the other side' after a minor surgery for gout or something; he looks speechless, just as I felt in all my 'math' classes after sixth grade.
That's what we called them after they abolished 'arithmetic' where I was just getting to understand that a three was a three, a five was a five, before the day they began slapping us all silly and brainwashed us by making us repeat three is 'X', five is 'Y'. WHAT? WHAT? WHAT? THIS IS STUPID! I'LL NEVER USE THIS STUFF!
My parents wouldn't let me quit school.
LOL. Thanks for sharing, Steve! Sorry to disappoint, but you and I more similar than the smitten-with-quantum-physics lady. At the Kauai Writers Conference, I took a class with Jeff Arch and about the third of the four mornings of our class he asked, "How many of you here are good at math?" NOT A SINGLE HAND WAS RAISED. Having said that, I have been known to pull out an X or two to do some problem solving with my knitting and all I know about quantum physics is that growing up I thought Scott Bakula was a hunk. Star Trek? Next Generation ALL THE WAY. Still crushing on Wesley Crusher.
DeleteScott Bakula is a hunk. I have watched the Quantum Leap series MANY times. One of my favorites. Nice recap of the Toastmasters meeting. Glad we gave you a topic to write about.
DeleteIt's appropriate that Einstein was born on Pi Day. He used Pi to calculate the diameter of the Universe. The final answer is due in momentarily.
ReplyDelete