Pi makes the world go round
By B Buckberry Joyce, Times Staff Writer
Published March 10, 2008
We at Xpress have a couple of confessions to make. One, we love pie, all kinds of pie - chocolate, apple, key lime, peanut butter.
Also, we are geeks.
For us, then, there is no better day than March 14, or 3/14, a day made for pi.
Take time out from all the tests, look ahead to spring break or just revel in the not-too-hot, not-too-cool weather.
Whatever the reason, it's a great day to feed your inner geek.
How about some pi?
What is pi?
Pi is a mathematical constant, or a number that comes up naturally in mathematics and always remains the same. Pi rounds off to 3.14159 but goes on endlessly (it has been calculated - using a supercomputer - to 1.24-trillion decimal places so far).
pi x d
Pi equals the number of times the diameter of a circle will fit along its circumference, no matter what size the circle is.
Try this out by using any circle - a can of soda, a pizza, a pie. Stretch a string from one side of the circle to the other, passing through the center (this is the diameter). Mark where the string crosses the circle's sides and measure the distance between the two points. Now, wrap the string around the circle, marking beginning and ending points. Measure this length, then divide by the diameter; your answer should equal pi. (Note: The more precise your measurements are, the more accurate your answer will be.)
pi x r2
Pi also is used to figure the area of a circle. To do this, you will need to know the radius of your circle. (The radius is the distance from the center of the circle to the edge, or one-half of the diameter.) Multiply the radius times itself, then multiply by pi.
Pi on your iPod
Times pop music critic Sean Daly would be half the man he is today if not for his serious love of pecan pie. We had to promise him a slice in exchange for this playlist.
The Pi Playlist
1. Pi, Kate Bush
2. The Math, Hilary Duff
3. Three Is a Magic Number, Blind Melon
4. Neverending Math Equation, Modest Mouse
5. American Pie, Don McLean
6. Circle in the Sand, Belinda Carlisle
7. The Final Countdown, Europe
8. The 3 R's, Jack Johnson
9. 1234, Feist
10. On and On, Erykah Badu
The men of pi
Scholars have known about pi for thousands of years. In fact, a scroll full of math problems and solutions from about 1650 B.C. mentions the number, though it wasn't called pi back then.
- In his work trying to figure the area of a circle, Archimedes of Syracuse, who lived in the 200s B.C., narrowed the constant to a number between 31/7 and 310/71 (The Ancient Greeks didn't use decimals; his range expressed in decimals is between 3.14286 and 3.14085).
- Ludolph van Ceulen of Germany lived in the late 1500s and spent most of his life working out pi to the 35th decimal place. The number was inscribed on his tombstone.
- Pi finally became pi in 1706 when William Jones of Wales used the Greek letter in place of the English letter "p" in his equations. ("P" had been used to indicate periphery, or perimeter.)
- Leonhard Euler, a renowned Swiss mathematician, picked up on Jones' notation some years later, and the name stuck.
DIY pi
If you're going to celebrate pi day, you might as well dress the part. Choose a design - cutie pi , pi a la mode , American pi , cow pi. Download the image to your computer, then print it onto T-shirt transfer paper (available at most office supply stores; directions on using the paper varies). Just iron on, and voila! Instant geek apparel.
Outside of math class, will I ever use pi again?
Believe it or not, someone geekier than ourselves admitted to using pi while ordering - go figure - a pizza pie. A local pizzeria offered two sizes of cheese pizza: a 14-inch pie for $10.50 and an 18-inch pie for $12.50. The 18-inch pie, our friend assures us, is clearly a better deal, if you just do the math.
The area of a circle, or pizza, is pi times radius squared. A pizza with a 14-inch diameter has a radius of 7. Seven squared is 49, and 49 times pi rounds off to 154 square inches of pizza. The 18-inch pizza has a radius of 9, which squared is 81. Multiply this times pi, and you get 254. So you get about 2/3 more pizza for about 1/5 more price - and still will have enough left over for breakfast the next day.
Easy as pie
The most challenging part of this key lime pie recipe is opening the packages. Otherwise, just chill.
Gary's Duck Inn's Key Lime Pie
6 ounces fresh or frozen lime juice
28 ounces canned sweetened condensed milk (not evaporated)
1 (9-inch) graham cracker or chocolate-cookie crumb crust
- Bring lime juice to a boil. Just as it begins to boil, remove from heat and refrigerate about 15 minutes. Stir lime juice into condensed milk and pour into pie shell. Place in refrigerator. Serve topped with whipped cream and garnish with a slice of lime.
Source: Another Taste of Florida: The Best of ''Thought You'd Never Ask,'' by Dorothy Chapman and Heather J. McPherson.
Pi for English majors
For those of you who are more word-oriented, we offer this palindrome: I prefer pi. (For those who don't know what a palindrome is, it is a word or phrase that reads the same forward and backward.)
A man who knows pi
On Oct. 4, 2006, Akira Haraguchi of Japan recited pi to 100,000 decimal places - from memory. He needed more than 16 hours to complete his feat. But he doesn't yet hold the official Guinness World Record. Until Haraguchi turns in documentation, the mark stands with countryman Hiroyuki Goto, who recited pi to 42,195 decimal places in 1995.
Mmmmm, pie
If you're ever lucky enough to be asked to judge a pie contest, here are some tips on what to look for:
- Appearance: Does it look like something you want to eat? After it's sliced, each piece should mostly hold its shape. Watch out for runny cream pies or fruit pies that fall apart. Give the entry high marks if you can't get to your fork fast enough.
- Taste: Taste for balance; no flavor should overpower others. Professional judges use the term "mouth feel" to explain how all the elements come together on the taste buds. For instance, some cream pies might feel slimy, which is not good. If fruit is undercooked, the hard bits will contrast weirdly with the cooked elements.
The crust should be firm, not soggy or crumbly. Lastly, does the pie leave a good taste?
- Pace yourself. When I judge cooking contests, I take one bite of an entry. If it's good, I take another. Never eat an entire portion. You learn that when you judge 10 or more of anything, but especially ribs or chili.
Janet K. Keeler, Times food and travel editor
Pi resources
- The Joy of Pi, and www.joyofpi.com, by David Blatner
- www.kathimitchell.com/pi.html
The artistic side of pi
People who get into pi tend to really get into it, and there's no better example than PiNation.com, which lets you create pi art and listen to pi as music. Ubergeeks can even download pi as a ringtone.
Find yourself in pi
Check to see if numbers like your phone number or birthdate are contained within pi at www.angio.net/pi/bigpi.cgi.
Happy birthday, Albert!
While you're celebrating, raise a fork to Albert Einstein, one of the world's most renowned mathematicians, who was born March 14, 1879.