Last year, I wrote about irrational numbers, which included the number π (Pi). Irrational numbers aren’t numbers that get angry at the supermarket when the cost of bananas goes up to $5.99 a kilo, they are numbers that can’t be represented as a fraction of two integers (whole numbers).

Now, that’s enough of a maths lesson for now, but the reason I mentioned the number Pi again is because recently we celebrated Pi Day. Pi Day is celebrated every year on 14 March because, in the USA, they write the date as 3-14 (the third month and the 14^th Day).

The number Pi has infinite decimal places, so we held a competition to see who could recall Pi to the most decimal places. Last year, I stated I could do two decimal places and I am very proud that on Pi Day I was able to recall Pi to 40 decimal places. However, many students exceeded my result and Angelique Vargheese (one of our STEM Leaders) reports on Pi Day in more detail below.

Pi Day

Wednesday 14 March marked International Pi Day, which we were determined to celebrate here at the College. Pi is used to represent the ratio of a circle’s diameter to its circumference and is represented by the Greek letter π. On this day, the STEM Leaders and teachers organised a Pi recitation competition, where students from any year level could go up against their peers and the teachers to see who could recite the most digits of Pi. Everyone who could recite more than ten digits of Pi received points for their House and the winner from each year level received a prize.

A massive congratulations to Luciana Avila (Year 7) who recited 50 digits, Ocienne Farquharson (Year 8) who recited 69 digits, Ms Fiona Ye who recited 55 digits (in two languages!!) and finally, Hayley Meure (Year 12) who recited 87 digits of Pi. This was only our first event of the year, so don’t fret if you missed Pi day since we have many wonderful events planned. I’m looking forward to seeing many of you at our future STEM events!

Angelique Vargheese
Year 12