Spring 2005

Contents:

Pi Day

We celebrated our fourth annual Pi Day - this has become a welcome tradition in the department. A bigger crowd than ever gathered in the Math den on March 14-th (3.14) to witness Dr. Folk reciting Pi. Dr. Folk has memorized over 300 digits of Pi and recites them for us with dizzying speed every spring.

Other featured speakers included Dr. Ovidiu Calin. You see, there is famous Buffon Neddle problem in which you toss toothpicks onto a lined mat and by counting the number of tookthpicks that fall on the lines, you can get a pretty good estimate for the value of Pi. Dr. Calin walks us through the mathematics behind the Buffon Neddle problem with surprising result...exactly how many toothpicks do you think are needed to get a good estimate of Pi?

Of course, what is Pi Day without pie. Thank you again to all those that made this year's Pi Day so much fun!