March 9 marks LMS Pi Day, an annual celebration of the mathematical sign pi. Students in the building look forward to this day just before spring break. This event at LMS started simply enough some 20 years ago, with Mrs. Chrsti Reid's math class. It soon encompassed the entire student body to see who could win the variest math-based games, and of course, who could recite the most digits correctly of PI.
Math teacher Dan Reazin has been in charge of the festivities for the past 2 years.
This year the students were divided up into 18 teams consisting of 6th, 7th, and 8th graders. The students then travel around the building competing in the 8 math games provided for them by Reazin and the LMS staff.
Each year on March 14th, or 3/14, math lovers around the world celebrate Pi Day. But what is pi? Pi is the symbol used in mathematics to represent a constant—the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter—which is approximately 3.14159. Founded in 1988 by physicist Larry Shaw, March 14 was selected because the numerical date (3.14) represents the first three digits of pi, and it also happens to be Albert Einstein’s birthday.
While Pi has an infinite number of digits, the current record is 50 trillion digits beyond its decimal point. This was calculated by Timothy Mullican in January of 2020. Keep in mind though that only a handful of the digits are needed for typical calculations, so you won’t need to memorize all 50 trillion! Pi’s infinite nature makes it one of the most popular mathematical concepts.
The first Pi Day celebration took place at the Exploratorium (Shaw’s place of work), a San Francisco-based interactive science museum, and featured a circular parade and the eating of fruit pies. It wasn’t until 2009, however, that it became an official national holiday when the U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation.
Why all the fuss about pi? The Ancient Greek mathematician Archimedes is most commonly credited with being the first to accurately calculate the estimated value of pi. Since it is an irrational, transcendental number, it continues on to infinity—the pi-ssibilities are endless! The seemingly never-ending number needs to be abbreviated for problem solving, and the first three digits (3.14) or the fraction 22/7, are commonly accepted as accurate estimations.
In mathematics, this infinite number is crucial because of what it represents in relation to a circle—it’s the constant ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter. Pi is also essential to engineering, making modern construction possible.