Pi Day
The number, not the food!
Jennifer Gregory
Issue date: 2/23/10 Section: News
On March 14, be prepared to devour 2.7 trillion slices, er, I mean, decimal places of Pi to celebrate Pi Day, the only holiday dedicated to the mysterious number.
But why 2.7 trillion you ask?
On January 5, maximumpc.com reported that Fabrice Bellard built a supercomputer that calculated the infamous number to 2.7 trillion places, beating the previous record of 2.5 trillion decimal places.
For all you techies out there, here are the specs of the computer he used:
• Core i7 CPU
• 2.93 GHz
• 6 GB of RAM
• Five 1.5 TB Seagate Barracudas
• Operating system: Red Hat Fedora 10, 64-bit
• Software RAID-0 and ext4 file system
103 days after running a Pi algorithm based on the Chudnovsky formula, he calculated Pi to 2.7 trillion decimal places, using 1137 GB of storage space!
However, Pi Day doesn't have to be a holiday limited to the math fanatics of the world. Everyone can celebrate the mystery and wonder surrounding Pi with some fun activities.
Pi Plates
Glue the Pi symbol ( ? ) onto the middle of a paper plate. Color it using ten different colors. Write the digits of pi around the outside border as many times as it will fit. Then, bake an apple pie and use icing to make a pi symbol on each slice. Drop a slice onto your plate and enjoy!
Pi Bracelets
Make a bracelet using a different color bead for each digit in pie up to 50 decimal places. After that, show it off to your friends!
Pi Stories
If you have young children in your life that you want to get interested in Pi Day, or just want to reconnect with your own inner child, these two books will leave you and those kids laughing and carrying on until Pi Day 2011: Sir Cumference and the Dragon of Pi and Sir Cumference and the First Round Table by Cindy Neuschwander and Wayne Geehan.
But why 2.7 trillion you ask?
On January 5, maximumpc.com reported that Fabrice Bellard built a supercomputer that calculated the infamous number to 2.7 trillion places, beating the previous record of 2.5 trillion decimal places.
For all you techies out there, here are the specs of the computer he used:
• Core i7 CPU
• 2.93 GHz
• 6 GB of RAM
• Five 1.5 TB Seagate Barracudas
• Operating system: Red Hat Fedora 10, 64-bit
• Software RAID-0 and ext4 file system
103 days after running a Pi algorithm based on the Chudnovsky formula, he calculated Pi to 2.7 trillion decimal places, using 1137 GB of storage space!
However, Pi Day doesn't have to be a holiday limited to the math fanatics of the world. Everyone can celebrate the mystery and wonder surrounding Pi with some fun activities.
Pi Plates
Glue the Pi symbol ( ? ) onto the middle of a paper plate. Color it using ten different colors. Write the digits of pi around the outside border as many times as it will fit. Then, bake an apple pie and use icing to make a pi symbol on each slice. Drop a slice onto your plate and enjoy!
Pi Bracelets
Make a bracelet using a different color bead for each digit in pie up to 50 decimal places. After that, show it off to your friends!
Pi Stories
If you have young children in your life that you want to get interested in Pi Day, or just want to reconnect with your own inner child, these two books will leave you and those kids laughing and carrying on until Pi Day 2011: Sir Cumference and the Dragon of Pi and Sir Cumference and the First Round Table by Cindy Neuschwander and Wayne Geehan.
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