Pi Day: Let's Celebrate!

I don't know about you, but I sure love Pi! In fact, it is my very most favorite irrational number. Most everyone knows that it's 3.14, but do they realize that it's all about the constant relationship that exists between circumference and diameter?

Want to explore that relationship further? Play with a cute puppy dog as he walks around in circles on his leash: http://illuminations.nctm.org/Activity.aspx?id=3547

If you are looking for ways to celebrate Pi day, look no further!

On March 14 (3.14) you may want to take a gander at one or more of these exciting and interactive websites. You'll score extra points if you do so right at 1:59 PM (since Pi is 3.14159).

Here is a Pi day webquest you might want to check out: http://www.mathgoodies.com/webquests/pi_day/

Here is an animated sequence that "unrolls" Pi: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pi-unrolled_slow.gif LOVE IT!

Want a brief history of Pi? http://www.exploratorium.edu/pi/history_of_pi/index.html

Have you ever seen the first 1 million digits of pi? http://www.piday.org/million/

Did you know you can explore Pi with music? http://avoision.com/experiments/pi10k THIS IS SO COOL! CHECK IT OUT, EMILY NIXON!

Wanna search Pi for number combinations? (Birthdays, Jersey numbers, etc)? http://www.angio.net/pi/bigpi.cgi

Chances of Finding Your Number in Pi

Why can/can't I find my number in Pi? If we view Pi as a big, random string of numbers (which is close enough for our purposes), then we can figure out the odds of finding any string in the first 100 million digits of Pi:

Number Length	Chance of Finding
1-5	100%
6	Nearly 100%
7	99.995%
8	63%
9	9.5%
10	0.995%%
11	0.09995%

Happily, if you include the zeros, birthdays are 8 digits long -- so you have a 63% chance of finding your birthday in the first 100 million digits of pi. Now that we're to 200 million, the odds are up to 86%, so it'll be a while before everyone can find their birthday in Pi. 

PS: I also really love PIE. So...if the mood strikes, feel free to drop off a slice of rhubarb or pecan pie. Seriously.   :)