From the Mathematics Department

International Pi Day

In many countries, pi day is celebrated on 14th March as many places write their date as the month followed by the day. 14th March is 3.14 and as an approximation for pi, is considered to be International Pi Day. However, in Australia, we write our date as the day followed by the month and as

is another approximation for pi, we decided at BMGS that we would celebrate pi day on Friday 22nd of July (22/7).

Students were told this at the Commencement Assembly on the Wednesday beforehand so there was not a lot of preparation time. There was a competition to see who could recite pi to the most number of decimal places – a good practice for memory building and also some fun. The winners were announced in Stages and were:

In Stage 4 – Luke Gibson from Year 7 who was able to recite π to 99 decimal places.
In Stage 5 – Michael Zhu from Year 10 who was able to recite π to 141 decimal places.
In Stage 6 – John Zhu from Year 12 who recited π to 157 decimal places.

Congratulations and well done. There were also many others who were able to recite π to many decimal places. How did they do it? How can we learn things that we want to remember?

Some learnt patterns, some had their own method, some may have learnt the song for the first 100 digits (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HRkKznJoZA)

Eliza Umbers (Year 8) wrote a story and, by doing so, was able to recite π to 64 decimal places. I have included her story here with the numbers written as digits rather than in words:

3 days ago, I wrote a story. On 1 sunny day, 4 ducks and 1 goose went on a walk and met 59 bees and 2 wasps. They made 6 leaf boats. On the river, they saw 5 fish splashing and 3 dragon flies flying. The boats floated for 5 days and 8 nights until they reached a dam with 9 beavers. They had 7 cups of tea with the 9 beavers and had 3 cakes, 2 pies, 3 jellies and 8 sandwiches 4 tea. At 6 o’clock, they decided 2 go bowling and they knocked down 6 pins leaving 4 standing. They had 3 more gos and got 3 strikes. At the arcade, they played 8 games and got 32 tickets. At the counter, they got 7 rubbers and 9 sweets. 50 people were behind us waiting in a line. Then we dropped the 2 wasps off at their home. By that time, it was 8 minutes past 8. By then 4 of the 19 baby bees felt tired and 7 were feeling air sick and 1 was already fast asleep. The Queen Bee was 69 years old and took them home to sleep. The ducks, bees and goose that remained went partying on 39 Honey Lane. 9 of the bees got drunk and 3 of the ducks vomited 7 times. The goose sung 5 songs with 10 words in each. 5 stars shone in the 8 galaxies.

What’s coming up that you can be involved in for Mathematics?

The Olympiads for students in Years 7 and 8 are on in Week 2 and Week 8.

The Australian Maths Competition for Years 7 to 11 is on Wednesday 3rd August.

Talk to your Mathematics teacher and give it a go!

Mrs Catherine Van Gelderen

Head of Mathematics