Pi Day and Phi Day 2012

How Pi Day Worked In the Past

We would learn a little bit about what the number pi is in math class

Students would memorize digits of the number Pi (3.1415926…), then we would have a competition to see who in each grade level could recite the most digits.

Winning students would get a real pie. Sometimes we threw in stuff like write pi

day poems, or we would have a pie bake sale.

Why Phi Day?

We’ve done Pi day for many years now, and to be frank, I think our school is numberist We’ve been discriminating against all the other

cool numbers that are out there. THE OPRESSION HAS TO END HERE! Minority

numbers will be represented. The days of Pi tyranny are OVER.

In all honesty, I still love pi and we will still celebrate it, but we’re also going to celebrate a new number: Phi.

What is Phi? Phi is a number that represents the perfect

spiral that is found in most plants and some animals (Snail shells for example)

It also represents most of the proportions in nature that we find beautiful (people who are beautiful usually have the ratio phi in their features.)

It is calculated using the Fibonacci Sequence which is:

0,1,1,2,3,5,8,13,21,34,55,89… What’s the pattern in the sequence above?

Phi is also known as the Golden Ratio The symbol that represents the ratio of Phi

is also a Greek letter and it looks like this:

The actual value of phi is an irrational number with the digits: 1.6180339887…

How are we going to Celebrate Pi and Phi? The 4th -7th graders (any one not in DeLacy-

sensei’s math classes) will have a Pi-day competition on Friday March 16th

The 7th =12th graders (or anyone who is in DeLacy-sensei’s math classes) will have a Phi-day competition on Friday March 16th . But, rather than reciting the digits of Phi, the 7th -

12th graders will memorize and recite the numbers in the Fibonacci sequence (because they’re more useful and more awesome.)

We will still have pie in honor of pi day, but we will also have cinnamon rolls in honor of phi.

The Week Leading up to Competition day I have a whole week of pi/phi day activities

lined up for you. Each day will be a different challenge.

Successful completion of this challenge will earn you a Cinnamon Roll from DeLacy-sensei.

You may start working on the challenges now so that you are ready to claim your cinnamon rolls.

You may earn up to 3 cinnamon rolls in the week leading up to competition day.

ALSO- If you bring in a pie and donate it to the school, you can claim a cinnamon roll.

Monday, March 12th

4th -7th graders (those not in DeLacy-sensei’s math classes) can complete the “Pi Day Scavenger Hunt Questions” and show their answers to DeLacy-sensei. If they answered everything correctly, they earn a cinnamon roll.

7th -12th graders (those in DeLacy-sensei’s math classes) can complete the “Phi Day Scavenger Hunt Questions” and show their answers to DeLacy-sensei. If they answered everything correctly, they earn a cinnamon roll.

Tuesday and Wednesday March 13th and 14th Design a “mathscot” (mascot) creature that

will represent mathematics at SJS. Draw this creature neatly on a large piece of paper or a poster, color it beautifully, and label it clearly. If you create a nice “mathscot” for me, I will give you a cinnamon roll and hang your mathscot up on my wall.

People can vote for their favorite Mathscot throughout the rest of the week and the winner will get a pie on Friday.

Thursday and Friday March 15th and 16th 4th -7th grade: Make an illustration of the

following poem by Nobel prize winning poet Wisława Szymborska:

The caravan of digits that is pidoes not stop at the edge of the page,but runs off the table and into the air,

over the wall, a leaf, a bird's nest, the clouds, straight into the sky,

through all the bloatedness and bottomlessness.Oh how short, all but mouse-like is the comet's

tail! OR you may write your own Pi day poem.

Thursday and Friday March 15th and 16th I have three options for earning a cinnamon

role on these two days:  Complete one of the two math/drawing challenges

DeLacy-Sensei will give you in class on Thursday OR you may write a creative and interesting poem

about Phi and the golden ratio. You may also create a beautiful drawing or piece of

art work using the golden ratio or the golden spiral that can be created using the Fibonacci sequence.

You may only do one of these three options.

Friday, March 16th

We will have our pi/phi day competition right after lunch.

4th -7th grade: Be working on memorizing digits of pi

7th -10th grade: Be working on memorizing the Fibonacci Sequence

Winners of the recitation contest AND the winner of the mathscot contest will get a pie.

I may also award pies to especially awesome poems or pieces of artwork.