Pi Day Celebrations Across the College
Students across the College enjoyed celebrating Pi Day this month, with both the Junior School and Senior School Mathematics departments organising activities to mark the occasion.
The Junior School marked Pi Day on 9 March with classroom activities, fun competitions and, of course, delicious pies. The Senior School joined the celebration on 16 March with a range of activities designed to highlight the famous mathematical constant π.
Pi (written using the Greek letter π) represents the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter. No matter how large or small the circle, this ratio is always the same. Pi is an irrational number, meaning its decimal places continue forever without repeating. For everyday use it is often rounded to 3.14, which is why Pi Day is celebrated around the world on 14 March (3/14).
In the Senior School, the canteen joined in by selling special pies for the day, while mentor classes competed in a Pi Day quiz. At lunchtime, students gathered in the amphitheatre for one of the most anticipated events of the day – the Pi recital competition, where students attempted to memorise and recite as many decimal places of π as possible. Staff also joined the celebration by wearing Pi-themed T-shirts, adding to the festive atmosphere across campus. Pi Day was a fun way for students to engage with mathematics and celebrate the curiosity and challenge that comes with learning numbers.
A Young Pi Enthusiast
In an impressive result, Year 5 student William M outperformed the Senior School competitors by successfully reciting 155 decimal places of π from memory. William’s interest in π began about two years ago when he asked his parents about the periodic table. After watching videos from ASAP Science, he came across a “Pi song”. At first he thought it was simply a song about random numbers, but soon realised it represented the digits of π. By listening to the song repeatedly, he memorised the sequence – much like learning the lyrics of any other song.
William said he was “unimpressed” with his first attempt of 150 digits because he knew he could do more. While he was happy to have beaten the Senior School competitors and become the “best in school”, he admitted he was slightly disappointed that he could not also claim the Senior School first prize. However, the two chocolate prizes helped soften the blow on the way home.
William now hopes to become a scientist and dreams of one day beating the current Guinness World Record for memorising π, which sits at around 70,000 digits and took more than 10 hours to recite.
To give a sense of just how long 155 digits is, here is π written to that length:
3.14159265358979323846264338327950288419716939937510582097494459230781640628620899862803482534211706798214808651328230664709384460955058223172535940812848111745
Congratulations William!
