Fishy Pi
Edited May 2019: We were a part of a wonderful Classical Conversations community for the first eight years of our home education journey. Now, due to poor state leadership and questionable corporate business practices, our family has elected to “consciously uncouple” from our association with the organization and we cannot recommend any others get involved at this time.
Forget solar flares and magnetic disruptions, there’s something suspicious going on surrounding Pi Day.
Never heard of it? You’re probably one of the people in the world who is just grateful they have a vague idea pi is 3.14 and useful in determining things that have to do with numbers.
Because we’re a Classical Conversations family these days I can tell you pi is terribly important if determining the circumference or area of a circle.* And that’s about all I can tell you. Ever.
But my friends who are mathematically inclined, they look forward to today, 3/14 as a celebration of the magical number that speaks order into our world.
I’ve seen friends who are much smarter brag they are celebrating the holiday by eating a piece of pie. I’m glad they’re getting their sugar highs but… really?
(My favorite piece of pie was blueberry sour cream from Berry’s Pie Pantry in Prescott, AZ. Yum.)
Another friend texted me this is her favorite holiday in the whole world and it was cemented when she saw a play on Pi Day at the University of South Dakota where the math department “paid for a group to come and put on what is called Calculus: The Musical. It was two people who put on an entire musical about the life and history of Calculus and it was magical.”
(That’s the University of South Dakota’s Math Department. Here’s the link. Don’t crash their server by all rushing to apply right. this. second.)
I believe this Calculus-loving friend was completely sober at the time of her mathematical visit, but with a final assessment of “magical,” well, I’m just not sure.
I know there’s something fishy about Pi Day because there are droves of people showing up at StealingFaith off of the search term “I’m sorry” and variations. I never knew my post on How to Say You’re Sorry wold drive such traffic to the blog but I hope it’s helping them out.
Why, on God’s green Earth, are 200+ people so sorry today they are Googling about it on the world wide web? Why?
My explanation: Pi Day.
I don’t understand it. But that’s probably ok because I don’t really understand a number that never ends, either.
Do you celebrate Pi Day? If so, how?
*When I hit publish, I wrote pi had to do with Squares. Not Circles. Yes. That’s why I like to hang out with letters and numbers scare me. Mea culpa.
I have no shame. I’m PROUD of my love for Pi Day.
“Pi is terribly important if determining the circumference or area of a square…”
A SQUARE?! The circumference (perimeter) of a square is just the sum of all its sides (or 4 times the side). The area is just the side squared. No pi involved. Please, for the love of all that is good in the world, can you rectify the above statement?
I rectified it. And even admitted to it publicly for all time with an asterisk. I hate math.
Bless you, bless you.
I would be much more likely to celebrate it if it was Pie Day, but no, I don’t. I do love the show Numb3rs, though, and they talk a lot about Pi.