Blog Post #20: Assignment 3, Pitanic

 Pitanic Video







Speaking Notes



Hundreds of mathematicians in history have dedicated their lives (or big portions of their lives) to finding pi. Swiss researchers have set a new record in 2021 for 62.8 trillion decimals, which was breaking the previous record in 2020 of 50 trillion. So why study pi so thoroughly when only 39 decimal places would be enough to compute the circumference of a circle surrounding the known universe to within the radius of a hydrogen atom?


1. It’s impressive and gives people bragging rights


2. Humans have a natural inclination to break records


3. Digits can be used as a stress test for supercomputers (Agarwal, 2013)


4. It’s all around us and even in our DNA! Here is a quote from Agarwal (2013):

“Pi’s appearance in the disks of the Moon and the Sun, makes it as one of the most ancient numbers known to humanity. It hides in the rainbow, and sits in the pupil of the eye, and when a raindrop falls into water π emerges in the spreading rings. Pi can be found in waves and ripples and spectra of all kinds and, therefore, π occurs in colors and music. The double helix of DNA revolves around π . Pi has lately turned up in super-strings, the hypothetical loops of energy vibrating inside subatomic particles.”


5. Researchers want to find patterns in Pi to distinguish it from other numbers (Agarwal,2013)

- The first 144 digits of π add up to 666

- 360 degrees in a circle, and the number 360 is at the 359th digit position of π . 

- The Website ‘The Pi-Search Page’ finds a person’s birthday in the digits of π .


6. It’s fun! I learned 300 digits of pi in high school and here are the 39 to compute the circumference of the universe with: 3 . 1 4 1 5 9 2 6 5 3 5 8 9 7 9 3 2 3 8 4 6 2 6 4 3 3 8 3 2 7 9 5 0 2 8 8 4 1 9 7 


References


박제남. (2020). Controversial history of pi in ancient egypt, old babylonia, and ancient greek 

mathematics. 한국수학사학회지, 33(4), 223-236.


Agarwal, R. P., Agarwal, H., & Sen, S. K. (2013). Birth, growth and computation of pi to ten trillion digits. Advances in Difference Equations, 2013(1), 1-59. https://doi.org/10.1186/1687-1847-2013-100


Bailey, D. H., & Borwein, J. M.Pi: The next generation: A sourcebook on the recent history of pi 

and its computation. Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/

10.1007/978-3-319-32377-0


Delbert, C. (2021, November 5). A supercomputer calculated pi to a record 62.8 trillion digits. Popular Mechanics. Retrieved December 8, 2021, from https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/math/a37329769/supercomputer-calculated-pi-to-record-breaking-628-trillion-digits/. 

MacTutor. (2000, September). Pi Chronology. Maths History. Retrieved December 1, 2021, from 

https://mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/HistTopics/Pi_chronology/. 


MacTutor. (2001, September). Pi history. Maths History. Retrieved December 1, 2021, from 

https://mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/HistTopics/Pi_through_the_ages/. 


mathematicsonline. (2013, March 14). How to calculate pi, Archimedes' method - youtube. Youtube. Retrieved December 8, 2021, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLZMZ-CT7YU. 

NASA. (2016, March 17). How many decimals of pi do we really need? - edu news. NASA. Retrieved December 8, 2021, from https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/edu/news/2016/3/16/how-many-decimals-of-pi-do-we-really-need/. 

Julia Collins Lecturer of Mathematics. (2021, August 31). Why bother calculating pi to 62.8 trillion digits? it's both useless and fascinating. The Conversation. Retrieved December 8, 2021, from https://theconversation.com/why-bother-calculating-pi-to-62-8-trillion-digits-its-both-useless-and-fascinating-166271. 

Wardhaugh, B. (2016). Filling a gap in the history of [pi] : An exciting discovery. The 

Mathematical Intelligencer, 38(1), 6. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00283-015-9556-7


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Blog Response #3: Crest of the Peacock

I was so drawn to the first paragraph of this text, especially after reading " Integrating history of mathematics in the classroom: an analytic survey" last week, because it offered some beautifully written points that could be used to argue why Math History is the key to mastering the Math curriculum. The very first line says "an interest in history marks us for life", and it's true isn't it? Don't you still remember one particularly scandalous or riveting story from history class? "From the first time we become aware of the past, it can fire our imagination and excite our curiosity" which is exactly what so many students need in a math class.  Near the beginning of this text, they mention that a concise and meaningful definition of math is virtually impossible because of it's many origins which inspired me to think of how diverse math is ! I find it fascinating that so many groups of people who had never had contact all came up with syste...
Read more

Blog Post 18: Assignment 3

 I will be covering the history of the discovery of Pi! My artistic method will be digital media/video :) Here is my reference list thus far:  References 박제남 . (2020). Controversial history of pi in ancient egypt, old babylonia, and ancient greek  mathematics. 한국수학사학회지 , 33 (4), 223-236. MacTutor. (2000, September). Pi Chronology . Maths History. Retrieved December 1, 2021, from  https://mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/HistTopics/Pi_chronology/.  MacTutor. (2001, September). Pi history . Maths History. Retrieved December 1, 2021, from  https://mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/HistTopics/Pi_through_the_ages/.  Bailey, D. H., & Borwein, J. M.Pi: The next generation: A sourcebook on the recent history of pi  and its computation. Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-32377-0 Wardhaugh, B. (2016). Filling a gap in the history of [pi] : An exciting discovery. The  Mathematical Intelligencer, 38 (1), 6. https:...
Read more

Blog Post #14: Dancing Euclidian Proofs

Watching this video, what I stopped to think about right away was the beauty of the nature around them and how they were able to use that to teach Euclidian proofs in an artistic and creative way. I find that the involvement of nature is an excellent learning aid. Even in my other two classes about Kindergarten curriculum and Kindergarten classroom environments, we see that the more children (and even adults!) can explore and use natural learning materials, the better they retain and understand the information, and the more inquiry and imagination is involved! Nature can be a beautiful tool when used for learning all sorts of subjects, but I especially enjoyed it in the way they used it. The sticks and rocks are accessible to everyone which makes it wonderfully repeatable by those watching from home! I also appreciate the physical movement used to demonstrate these proofs. I didn't have a chance to come up with and present my own physical proof using my body because I was absent fr...
Read more