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Monday, March 11, 2013

Pi Day Prep - a #Mathchat

These are some of the resources and topics that came up in today's #mathchat redux on the approaching Pi Day. More than a couple neat things.

Mathchat is a twice weekly twitter discussion with hashtag #mathchat organized by Colin Graham, and moderated by him or Shawn Urban. Also good for finding math resources anytime of the day or night.

Discussion Points
  • @ColinTGraham The materials I developed for my teacher training certificate were based on exploring π, so I have a kind of 'vested interest'!
    • @ColinTGraham #mathchat The main way I started was with Yr9/10 (13/14 yos) using circles with inscribed and circumscribe polygons...
    • The curricular content required measuring and dealing with perimeters, so it became approximations to circumference...
    • With one class, we had tin cans, glasses, mugs, etc and pieces of string which we wound round the objects and measured
  • Joe DiNoto ‏@mathteacher1729 #mathchat -- engaging activities: Do Buffon's needle problem live? Write a script to do it for you? [Extra link: Buffon's Needle]
  • Kara Fromke ‏@karafromke #mathchat here's a discussion starter on pi day: The Time Indiana Tried to Change Pi to 3.2 http://bit.ly/ZuVm9W
  • Earl Samuelson ‏@earlsamuelson @ColinTGraham I showed my Grade 10's an animation I made for estimating pi (Archimedes). They liked it; referenced it again today #mathchat
    • @earlsamuelson Screenr - SamuelsonMath31: Estimation of Pi (Archimedes) http://www.screenr.com/inL7 
  • @ColinTGraham Or what it is too! RT @mathhombre: it does amaze me as much as we talk about it, as well known as it is, how few know why it is.
  • @ColinTGraham Another interesting discussion I got into with my 15yos, many moons ago, was are more irrational than rational numbers
    • @mathhombre Got discussing with my kids irrational vs rational. They thought maybe every irrational number had a 'name' (pi, phi, etc) #mathchat
    • @mathhombre Now how many transcendental numbers are there... that's a pi day discussion! #mathchat
    • Maths4ukplc ‏@Maths4ukplc @mathhombre @pickover 15 top transcendental numbers which pi probably number 1 closely followed by e. http://sprott.physics.wisc.edu/pickover/trans.html … #mathchat
  • @suburbanlion @ColinTGraham #mathchat I remember a programming class where we used Monte Carlo method to approximate pi/4. I was amazed at accuracy!
  • @ColinTGraham Just in case you didn't know... Tau Day | No, really, pi is wrong: The Tau Manifesto by Michael Hartl http://bit.ly/u6Rvvr  #mathchat
Serious Resources
Not so serious Resources 
  • Ryan R Ruff ‏@suburbanlion . @TCCva is having a #piday pie contest. Students/staff can bring in pies & winners will be picked for best tasting/looking.  
    • @ColinTGraham #mathchat @suburbanlion @TCCva So if someone brings in a square pie, what then? We need to get away from the "pun" sometimes, don't we? 
    • @suburbanlion @ColinTGraham @TCCva I suppose if some pies are squared, that's in the area of good puns ;-)
  • Neil Langevin ‏@neillangevin A Kate Bush song for Pi day http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZSHr5E7fZY … Lyrics here http://www.absolutelyrics.com/lyrics/view/kate_bush/pi … #lethsd #mathchat
  •  @mathhombre #mathchat Anybody bring up TJ Zmina's classic (mp3) http://bit.ly/gDRY18  National Pi Day (Lehrer tune, hence great)

You can always try searching #piday, too.

Have fun, and derive responsibly.

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