Pi (𝝅) Not Pie
Harini Senthilkumar
Pi. Pi is a series of never ending numbers, and it is not easy to memorize. When Mrs. Hill, our fifth-grade teacher, said that it was Pi Day, almost everyone said “Huh?” Mrs. Hill told us that Pi is a mathematical constant, and its value is 3.14… Pi is the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter. She said that we are going to memorize at least 10 numbers. She gave us the paper with the first 500 digits of Pi. Mrs. Hill said that we can't memorize the digits until we get home. Mrs. Hill also told us that Pi is used to calculate the area (𝜋r2) and circumference (2𝜋r) of a circle.
It is also used to calculate the volume of spherical objects. She also explained that Pi is celebrated in March 14th, because March is the third month, and the date is 14, the first three digits of Pi!! She added that a famous scientist, Albert Einstein, (known for the theory of relativity, and the equation, E=mc2), was born on Pi day. She further said that another famous scientist, Stephen Hawking (famous for the book: A Brief History of Time) passed away on Pi Day. I waited until school is over and the second I got home, I started memorizing numbers.
3.1415926535... Oh boy. I counted how many numbers I knew, and it was wait, 119, 120, 121! I knew 121 digits of Pi! The next day at school, we started the game. Mrs. Hill gave us a piece of paper and told us to write how many digits we have memorized. I picked up my pencil, and began writing. I finished and handed it to Mrs. Hill. To take the tension off the game, she took us to play Dodgeball.
After a couple of rounds, we went back in the classroom. Mrs. Hill held the paper and said, that I had memorized 121 digits!! When I got home, I researched Pi, and got some fun facts. For example, did you know that Lu Chao recited 67,890 digits!! Almost everyone knows Pi, but do they know who discovered it? William Jones, invented Pi in 1706. Pi has 2.7 trillion digits in approximation.
