Thursday, March 14, 2013

Happy π Day! And some Mathematical Art

Happy π Day!

π = 3.14159 26535 89793 23846 26433 83279 50288...

Who would have known that the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter would generate interest though out human history? π never ends, and over 10 trillion digits have been calculate. I have memorized about 15 digits. The digit zero (0) does not appear until the 32nd digit.

Why is π such a "celebrity" number? Find out here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJ-HwrOpIps

According to Dr. James Grime, we can calculate the size of the observable universe using π with only 39 digits.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FpyrF_Ci2TQ

You can use the (very slow converging series) to get π:

π = 4 × (1 - 1/3 + 1/5 - 1/7 + 1/9 - 1/11 + 1/13 - 1/15 + 1/17...)

There are many songs about π. My favorite is "Pi" by Kate Bush (off the album "Aerial").

Tonight I plan to join desmos.com to participate in a π Day discussion.

To celebrate my birthday and π Day, I am going to share some mathematical artwork, which was created using the TI nSpire CX CAS iPad App.