Homeroom: At Great River School in St. Paul, Pi Day means a little irrational fun – Pioneer Press
For math lovers, Pi Day is a reason to celebrate — or, for one student, to recite the number to 1,000 places
Melanie Donnelly, 15, a student at Great River School, St. Paul, who will be competing in a Pi day event, March 14, at her school, demonstrates her memory of more than 900 places of Pi Thursday, March 10, 2011. Last year she remembered 513–this year she is trying to double that. (Pioneer Press: Jean Pieri)
At 1:59 this afternoon, students at Great River School in St. Paul will begin their assault on pi.
The date and time are fixed by the first six digits of the mathematical constant — 3.14159 = March 14, at 1:59 — and students will celebrate Pi Day by rising to recite as much of the infinite, nonrepeating number as they can. And of course they get to eat pie, too.
Last year’s champion, Melanie Donnelly, is aiming to call out pi to 1,000 places, which would be about twice as many as she did last year.
The world record is 67,890 digits, but 1,000 would be the record at Great River, a Montessori-based charter school serving grades 7-12 that has been observing Pi Day for seven years.
Great River and other schools mark the day each year as a way to underscore the importance of math but also have some fun.
Melanie, a 10th-grader and daughter of a math teacher at the school, said she’s always had a good memory.
She started applying it to pi — the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter — last year when her math teacher made her a deal that she could skip half the course’s homework if she committed 314 digits to memory. She wound up getting to 513.
“Last year it was just sort of cool, and I wanted to do better,” she said. “One thousand seems like a goal. I think I can do that.”
She’s been memorizing in chunks of 10 digits, and as of Thursday, she was up to 990.
She runs through the numbers in her head at night
before she falls asleep, she said.
The going has been tough in spots, like the start of the 800s, where “I think it just doesn’t flow as well.”
If she hits 1,000, she said, she might leave it at that and not try to go for more next year. “It’s getting really hard.”
Doug Belden can be reached at 651-228-5136.
Melanie Donnelly, 15, a student at Great River School, St. Paul, who will be competing in a Pi day event, March 14, at her school, demonstrates her memory of more than 900 places of Pi Thursday, March 10, 2011. Last year she remembered 513–this year she is trying to double that. (Pioneer Press: Jean Pieri)