In celebration of pi day on March 14, the math department will host two online classrooms for ICA students to attend. The 14th of March has been given this designation due to the value of pi most commonly approximated as 3.14.
As far back as the ancient Babylonians, who calculated the area of a circle using 3 as an approximation, there are records of people using a constant value to calculate circle problems. Although ancient mathematicians used several approximations, it was not until Leonhard Euler popularized the use of the symbol π in 1737 that a formal name was given. For centuries, mathematicians worked to discover a more accurate value to represent this ratio between the circumference of a circle and the diameter. Since Euler popularized the use of the Greek letter π, mathematicians have referred to the value as "pi," which is pronounced "pie" in the English language.
The first class that commemorates this important mathematical discovery will be held a week in advance on March 7 and will go over some of the history of pi, as well as calculations of circumferences of circles. The following week on pi day, March 14, the second classroom session will focus on calculating areas of circles. Students attending are encouraged but not required to create or bring a circular item to the pi day class. The students will collaborate to find the areas of these circles and enjoy telling each other of their circular items. A variety of pictures of pies and cookies for which the areas can be solved also will be provided.