Pi day!

Hello friends,
March 14th (3/14) is sometimes celebrated by us nerdy folks as pi day (since pi is 3.14159....). True enthusiasts like to be doing an activity at 1:59 to get the next three digits--3/14 1:59. If you are a purist and attempt this on pi day, I recommend 1:59 p.m. But if you can't contain your excitement and are striving for 1:59 a.m.,  I salute you! (From my bed, sleeping:)

Pi is pretty awesome as it is the ratio of the circumference (all the way around a circle) to the diameter (across a circle). The thing that is so darn neat is that this is true for big and small circles alike!

So for this activity you will need: 
A big piece of paper (newspaper or construction paper is great!)
A marker or pen
A few items that are round. I chose to use some different sized can goods (corn and a small can of tomatoes), a quarter,  and a bowl.

What to do: 
On your big piece of paper in the lower left corner draw a big L:

Label the short side of your paper diameter (that's right across the circle--don't worry, I will show you a picture in a minute). Label the long side of the 'L' circumference (that's all the way around the circle).

Now, grab your first circular item! Putting one side that the corner of the 'L' (we call that the origin in math-talk), measure across the widest point of your circle and mark it with a pen.

Next, flip your round object on it's side and roll it up the axis. (Pro tip! make a little mark on your object so you can see when you have rolled it exactly once. Here I used the label on the spice jar)

I know it's a little hard to see, but I rolled the side of the spice jar up the long side of the 'L'. For the next picture, tip your head to the left, you are rolling up the page.

Now make a dot at the intersection of the two measurements you made, like this:

Repeat this as many times as you like for as many circular objects as you can find or until you get tired or need to eat.  The dots will all fall on the same line! The steepness of the line (called the slope in math-talk) is the magical, never-ending number pi!

What's so cool about this activity is it doesn't matter if you use big or small circles, the ratio of the diameter to the circumference is always the same! That's why all the dots fit on the same line.

Want to learn some of the digits of pi? Here is a song to help you learn! And, apologies parents, I find this spectacular. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AtgfsRH3H3U

Interested in some more digits of pi? Lets listen to what pi would sound like if each digit were assigned a musical key:
listen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNpab2PDquw

This one shows you the piano and other instruments, which I kinda like:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wK7tq7L0N8E

And if you are still interested, you can find even more here! There are a bunch of different audio files on this page as well of a 5 minute explanation of pi and making music out of it:  https://uh.edu/engines/epi3030.htm  You need to scroll way down the page.
Warning, the first audio file link isn't working, and 'audio 2' is linked above. 


Thanks for learning about pi and we hope to see you again soon!