14 Mar 2015, 12:14 pm
Ok, I can't tell anyone else this story b/c no one would understand and not take it as either bragging or just being weird.
We are a nerdy family, so we celebrate Pi Day. Typically I make a pie. We have been doing a lot of math with my son, and this year I taught him about radians. Ok so far, right? Well, to my surprise, my son insisted that I make 1/2 a pie because a circle consists of 2 pi radians, so 1 pi is 1/2 a circle. So I had to rig my pie pan with aluminum to make a semicircle, fold crust into a semi-circle, including up the straight wall, fill the crust, and top it with a semi-circle of crust. (He does not think single-crusted pies are real pies. A big empanada was also not acceptable and did not count as a pie.)
Luckily, it came out mostly ok. Some of the filling leaked out. I have a feeling I will be doomed to making 1/2 pies every Pi Day, so I need to get better at it.
At least, my son said I can make a normal pie on Tau Day. 
14 Mar 2015, 12:32 pm
Too funny
Do you have any idea when Pi day became a thing? I was a total math nerd as a kid, and my dad was an engineer, but somehow Pi day never embedded in my mind. Of course, with my son anxiously waiting for admission results to his favorite polytech today, it will probably never leave my mind again but, still, I'm wondering when it really took off. So many things seem tied to my youth that I've only really noticed recently (like 4:20, totally from my generation, but I only heard of it when it became a "thing").
14 Mar 2015, 1:20 pm
14 Mar 2015, 1:28 pm
14 Mar 2015, 1:36 pm
That is awesome. Thank you. that would make it a lot easier.
Oh, it delighted the heck out of us. i just wish more people IRL (Well any people, IRL, actually) would take some amount of joy in hearing it, too.
But, yeah, it is so smart and so cute!
14 Mar 2015, 2:09 pm
Do you have any idea when Pi day became a thing? I was a total math nerd as a kid, and my dad was an engineer, but somehow Pi day never embedded in my mind. Of course, with my son anxiously waiting for admission results to his favorite polytech today, it will probably never leave my mind again but, still, I'm wondering when it really took off. So many things seem tied to my youth that I've only really noticed recently (like 4:20, totally from my generation, but I only heard of it when it became a "thing").
http://www.exploratorium.edu/visit/cale ... e-day-2015
In 1988 a physicist there, Larry Shaw, founded March 14 as Pi Day. And in 2009 the House of Representatives passed a resolution supporting the designation.
http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/ ... tury/?_r=0
I learned 3.1415926 in school, but then I noticed the subsequent groups of palindromes punctuated by 8s... so my PI is now grouped to emphasize the palindromes after the initial "141"):
3.1415926 535 8 979 323 8 46264
14 Mar 2015, 6:50 pm
Do you have any idea when Pi day became a thing? I was a total math nerd as a kid, and my dad was an engineer, but somehow Pi day never embedded in my mind. Of course, with my son anxiously waiting for admission results to his favorite polytech today, it will probably never leave my mind again but, still, I'm wondering when it really took off. So many things seem tied to my youth that I've only really noticed recently (like 4:20, totally from my generation, but I only heard of it when it became a "thing").
http://www.exploratorium.edu/visit/cale ... e-day-2015
In 1988 a physicist there, Larry Shaw, founded March 14 as Pi Day. And in 2009 the House of Representatives passed a resolution supporting the designation.
http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/ ... tury/?_r=0
I learned 3.1415926 in school, but then I noticed the subsequent groups of palindromes punctuated by 8s... so my PI is now grouped to emphasize the palindromes after the initial "141"):
3.1415926 535 8 979 323 8 46264
That explains it: I was immersed in my (non-science or tech) career by then.
Thanks!
btbnnyr
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Joined: 18 May 2011
Gender: Female
Posts: 7,359
Location: Lost Angleles Carmen Santiago
15 Mar 2015, 4:59 pm
15 Mar 2015, 8:20 pm
You can teach your son Archimedes' method of exhaustion for calculating the area of a circle using inscribed polygons.
After this, he will only be able to accept a full pie on pi day.
That was a really good idea. We have discussed the unit circle so I gave your idea a try. Unfortunately, he did not think the area of a unit circle being pi trumps the fact that a circle has 1/2pi radians.
I will give it another try next March and see if I can convince him then. maybe his thinking will change by then.
Thank you for the idea.
We did go ahead and order the 1/2 circle pan just in case.
16 Mar 2015, 9:00 pm
Tell him that if he wants to focus on the circumference instead of the area, he can only eat from the circumference while everyone else will eat from the area....
OK, no, that would be mean.
But you could also try a square pie, because... you know.
btbnnyr
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Joined: 18 May 2011
Gender: Female
Posts: 7,359
Location: Lost Angleles Carmen Santiago
17 Mar 2015, 12:13 am
18 Mar 2015, 12:03 pm
11 Apr 2015, 7:09 am
11 Apr 2015, 9:38 am
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11 Apr 2015, 9:46 am
