What do you get when you divide the circumference of a pumpkin by its diameter? Pumpkin pi! This was one of the jokes shared in a Wayne County Schools Career Center Algebra 2 class by teacher Jennifer Casteel to celebrate Pi Day.
The Greek letter Pi, is the symbol for the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter. Career center math students celebrated Pi Day a little bit early this year, wearing Pi shirts they made themselves and enjoying pie and all sorts of round treats. The students had a contest to see who could memorize the most digits and took a Pi trivia test, which was very difficult, said Casteel.
Pi is generally rounded to 3.14, so it is celebrated on March 14, and begins precisely at 1:59:26.5 p.m. (3.14159265), according to Scott Brown, another career center math teacher. The digits for Pi have been calculated to more than one trillion past the decimal so far by computers, but go to infinity.
On Monday, March 8, U.S. Rep. Bart Gordon of Tennessee introduced House Resolution 224, supporting the designation of Pi Day.
Some of the career center programs in which good math skills are vital include precision machining, construction, engineering technologies, business and marketing technologies, and electronics, as well as health career programs.
The career center students enjoyed the celebration, with Jeremiah Briggs of Triway calling it interesting, and Anna Weikert saying, its good.
