Saturday, March 14, 2015

Today is Pi Day

    Now all of my followers know that Pi is the ratio between the circumference and diameter of a circle and that it's value is 3 1/7 or 3.14.  1/7 is a non repeating decimal and goes on to infinity. I think! For example 3.1428572... Some people have memorized this decimal to 1000 places!!!

    Now how do you know all this stuff? It's because some nerdy little math teacher like me, taught you so that you will never forget. My canned lesson went like this. I asked kids to bring tin cans to school...big cans little cans. You had to take a week to get the cans so with a lot of cans around the room there was always some risk of cans rolling up and down the aisles and kids with mischievous grins.

     On the appointed day we got out the cans and I gave kids string and they had to measure the circumference and diameter of the can.Then they had to find the ratio. Oh they forgot what a ratio is!!! Each pair had to do this with three different cans and three times on each can. So after a while they came up with something close to 3 1/7 . The liars got exactly3.14.  The idea was to get the kids to do something, hands on, to understand a concept.

     Then they go the opportunity to use the formula and fine the circumferences of circles.

      Now I have to reflect on my canned lesson. In the old days when I was taught this concept, they didn't tell us anything about pi. We were told , that this is the value of pi  and plug in the formula and you find the circumference of a circle. Old guys like me remember the value of pi. I hope the kids I taught remember the value and a little more. I really have to wonder if teachers are half as smart as they think they are.


     Oh yes! About this being pi day? Today is the 3rd month and 14 th day. So 3.14. Math teachers have been waiting for this day and there were many activities celebrated.
Sounds like fun.

     It seems like every day is for something special! For an old guy like me every day is special.



   

   

34 comments:

  1. Today March 14, in 1879
    Albert Einstein, Date of birth!

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  2. Happy Pi day! Math is not my good subject. I try to hard to understand it or that is what I have been told. Oh well I bet you were a great teacher.

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    1. Never say something is not your good subject. You don't want to knock yourself down.

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  3. i'm glad you remember pi enough to remind us what it is! :)

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    1. Are you admitting that you forgot about pi?

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  4. I hated math but not as much as I hated English. I do know what pi is and I could use a slide rule if I watched a video of it. :)

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    1. For hating English you do very well as a blog writer.

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  5. Sounds good fun, I expect they still remember.

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    1. I'm surprised at all the events that went on to celebrate pi.

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  6. To celebrate 3.1415 my daughter and her friend ran in the Pi Run and then had pie. She sent me a photo of them eating a pie in Chicago. I wish I had a math teacher like you, Red. I might have enjoyed it more.

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    1. Yes , I think many events had pie for lunch. Most of the time I had to be fast an dirty as you were limited for time.

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  7. Yes, yesterday at exactly 9:26 and and 53 seconds I honored Pi...although I remember very little from school about this.

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    1. I think very few people remember pi or a lot of other things. What did we teach it for?

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  8. Not only was it (yesterday) Pi Day, but the whole date was 3/14/15 -- lucky number? I never had a teacher like you to help me remember pi, so I had to wait until I grew up and learned it. :-)

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    1. Most of the time I had to be fast and dirty as we were always short of time. I must remember the lucky number.

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  9. Hands on is a great way for kids to understand a concept. Sure worked for me when I was in school.

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    1. For some kids it's the only learning strategy that works. It's too bad teachers didn't have enough time to use all teaching strategies.

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  10. There were quite a number of Pi references online yesterday as well.

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    1. Yes, I was surprised how much was on.

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  11. Hi Red, Dang it ... I didn't see your post until today ... 3.15.15 ... I missed pi ... Hey, you are amazing to remember all that stuff. :-) If I recall (doubtful) my math teacher wanted us to memorize pi out to 10 decimals. I think I did it ... back then ... but you know what ... I've never put it into use. Well, yes, there were a few times I wanted to calculate the circumference of a circle ... but I can't remember now what happened. Ha ha. Next year pi day will be 3.1416 ... so we won't have a perfect circle? Take care Red, I really like Hiawatha House. John

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    1. I think most people have forgotten poor old pi. why did we teach it? I think it had some value as far as logic and thinking was concerned.

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  12. Happy Pi Day. I've never had an opportunity to put this knowledge to use.

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    1. Hey, as an artist don't you try to get perfect shapes and sizes???

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  13. I wish I could say had I a maths teacher like you I might have learned and even remembered the value of pi. Wouldn't be true. Wasn't the teacher's fault I could not comprehend maths. I expect many students remember you if not the subject matter.

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    1. We had very little time to do an exercise like this. The time was too short to teach the whole program.

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  14. 3.1415926- 3/14/15 at 9:26 AM or PM
    You could celebrate it twice yesterday! I forgot. But I did eat pizza pie at the soccer match in honor of the day.
    I never taught pi, but I sure like your way of ding it. If my teachers had taught it that way, it might have had some meaning.

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    1. Little guys have many more important things to experience. We didn't have enough time to use these strategies very often. There was too much content to cover and get the little guys ready for tests.

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  15. Today is "The Ides Of March" and I can fill you in on that one if you like, for today is actually my Birthday. I can recite Julius Caesar's last words, which I have done more than once on my birthday. Have a lovely day:)

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  16. ell, there you go. I never learned that at school. Or perhaps I wasn’t listening. I was so terrified of my maths teacher I shook all over when I saw him. The blighter always called me to the blackboard (yes blackboard in those far off days) and made me do stuff I was totally unable to understand.

    He was always glad to be confirmed in his opinion of me as a complete dunce.

    I bet yo’d never have done that to your pupils.

    Thanks for the lesson.

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  17. I reminded the gal passing out pie samples of this number and she laughed since many probably quoted it.

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  18. You "do" write about the most interesting stuff!!! :)

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  19. At the last school I taught at, the math teachers brought in pies for Pi Day. Math was very popular that day! And the leftovers were left for the teachers after the student departed. I admit to eating the crumbs from a chocolate silk pie more than once!

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  20. Oh, you hit a sore. ouch. Math. Well, you would have been a great teacher for me. Providing you had the patience with me Red.

    Had a male teacher who got so frustrated with me. He took the school chalkboard eraser and rubbed my cheeks on both sides. Slow and easy.
    Get me. After that. I was the chalkboard Math dummy he called me.

    Then he yelled to everyone else. And that goes for others who think Math is not important.

    I tell you if I had been a mouthy kid like kids are today. I would have slapped him straight off the face of the earth.

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