Happy (Belated) Pi Day!

Yesterday was "National Pi Day" -- March 14 (3.14). It has been declared by the U.S. House of Representatives as a way to introduce children and adults to the wonders of math and science (HR 224, in 2009). Pi is one of the most widely used mathematical constants in science and engineering, but only a relatively small fraction of the general public knows of its significance (perhaps beyond the circumference of a circle being pi times its diameter).



In honor of Pi day, I thought I'd introduce you to a website dedicated to your favorite mathematical concept: Pi! The wife of one of my favorite professors at Cal, Alex Filippenko, created a website designed an educational and entertaining website, piZone.org, in order to promote National Pi Day as a day to celebrate the fun facts, trivia, and uses of pi.

From an email I received from Alex:

The site has various videos, interactive games, and even pi-related t-shirts –- everything a person needs to celebrate pi. Moreover, you can enter to win an iPad (whichshe calls a "Pi-Pad") or t-shirts; click on the "Play" button, or "like" piZone on Facebook. (No purchase is necessary to win.)

The website is her social mission, and it was created as a crowd-source resource. Under the "pi it forward" program, $3.14 from every t-shirt sale goes to provide a pi-related t-shirt to a K-12 teacher.

I invite you to visit the website or Facebook (piZone) and help share the pi.
-Alex


Check out the site, it's pretty pi-tastic! And, because I can't resist, in honor of Pi day, my favorite Pi riddle:
Question: What do you get if you divide the circumference of a jack-o-lantern by its diameter?
Answer: Pumpkin Pi!

Introducing TED-Ed:

TED Talks is rolling out their new program: TED-Ed. This is set to be a series of TED Talks, under ten minutes in length, whose intention is to potentially rival Khan Academy.

I think the idea is fabulous, and the more well funded, educational services out there and accessible by students, the better. From the video description: TED-Ed's mission is to capture and amplify the voices of great educators around the world. We do this by pairing extraordinary educators with talented animators to produce a new library of curiosity-igniting videos.

In fact, they make it simple for you to nominate a teacher or animator. This can be done here.

The Most Astounding Fact

Neil DeGrasse Tyson was asked by a reader of TIME magazine, "What is the most astounding fact you can share with us about the Universe?" This is his video response, an incredible and humbling take on the universe:

Under the Microscope

 

The human body is an amazing instrument with the ability to heal itself from a variety of different maladies. A T cell (depicted in the video above) is one of the immune system's responses to external threats. These cells identify and attack diseased cells in order to eradicate them from the host's body. A cytotoxic T cell, which is what the above cell is classified as, exists with the single purpose of going around looking for cancerous cells, whereupon is eradicates them without causing any damage to the healthy cells in the area.

The Vastness of the Universe

How big is the Universe? Well, what do you want to compare it to? After all, it's all relative. It's interesting to note that between the Planck length and the size of the known universe, humans (magnitude 10⁰⁾ are at about 65%, which means we're pretty huge.

A website developed by Cary Huang called Scale of the Universe allows for an interactive experience, whereupon the user can scroll in and out, all the way from Quantum Foam to the very edges of the observable universe.

I love the diversity of objects included, and the animations and text descriptions round out the experience nicely. It's an awe inspiring depiction of humans and our impact, but also of the limitations of what we know and can experience.

The Earth at Night

This is an image of the world at night, thanks to NASA's Visible Earth, 2001. The various colors that can be seen are city lights, natural gas flares, wildfires, and lights from fishing fleets. (Disclaimer: Obviously, this is a compiled image since the earth is never all dark at once, nor is it flat...)

Entomology!

 

Thanks to xkcd!