Approximating Pi Day

Since Pi Day fell on a Saturday this year, we approximated Pi Day and celebrated on Monday instead... So What did we learn about pi?

Today we celebrate Π (Pi), a very cool number. Π is a comparison between the measurements of the circumference to the diameter of a circle—any circle. Pi is an IRRATIONAL number. That means it has no pattern and never terminates. It CANNOT be written as a fraction with an integer in the numerator and denominator. We use 3.14 and 22/7 as APPROXIMATIONS of pi. These are not the exact values. The only symbol that tells the exact value is Π. Pi is a ratio, a comparison between two numbers. You will be able to discover many interesting facts about pi—even finding it on your own.

After measuring 3 different circular objects and completing the table...
Think about your results and answer these questions:

How does the measurement of the circumference compare to the measurement of the diameter? Is it twice as large? Is it three times as large or more than three times as large?

Compare your values to 3.14 Were your calculations greater or less than the 3.14 values of pi?

Are you values of pi consistent?Explain why or why not?

What reasons do you think would account for these differences?

On your computer, read about the history of pi at this website
http://ualr.edu/lasmoller/pi.html
Record 5 new or interesting facts about pi that you learned

Finding Yourself in Pi
Pi is an irrational number. That means that it is a non-terminating, non-repeating decimal. Since the number order keeps changing you will eventually find any group of numbers in a sequence, somewhere in the never-ending list. Through the influence of high speed computers that can process large amounts of data, we can examine this aspect of pi much more easily. There are even websites that will instantly search pi for any string of numbers.
Your assignment is to locate a specific string of numbers in pi. Pick a string of 7 or more numbers that is meaningful or significant to you, such as your phone number or birthday (for example: if your birthday is February 9, 1993, then your number string would be 02091993). On your computer, use the Pi Searcher at http://www.angio.net/pi/piquery to find where in pi your number string occurs. Record the string of numbers and what position it holds in the list of numbers.
There are a number of great Pi day songs.. but I think the best is from Fort Vancouver High School .. Check out this video and rap they created...