Never Ending Fun At Dulwich College Shanghai’s Pi Day

2016-05

This year, Pi Day was extra special as the date, 14 March 2016, rounded to 4 decimal places actually giving Pi (3.1416). This is an event that only happens every 100 years!


Senior School

The famous Pi Day came and went with the usual enthusiasm that we see from the students and staff, so much so, that the exam year classes in Years 10, 11 and 13 wanted to join in on the fun. Unfortunately, our seniors were unable to participate in all of the fun with the preparation required for upcoming examinations.
 
Year 7 had to find what Pi was and how it was calculated. Some classes were awarded prizes for the best approximation through practical means. One student in Year 7 managed to memorise Pi to 106 decimal places. By the end of the lessons Pi Day 2016, students learned how to calculate Pi using various circular objects, and had some fun in the process. Year 8 completed a Pi related quiz, finding areas and circumferences and the dingbat PowerPoint had them all thinking. Good fun had by all with some great Pi Maths problems being solved. Most of us, however, suffice with an accuracy of 3.14.
 
Dr. Graham Pyper
Assistant Head of Mathematics

Junior School
The smell of food was inevitable, as children entered school with their circular treats eager to find the student who could recite the most digits of Pi. People have always been interested in memorising digits of Pi, and most people can remember when Mr Raeburn-Garbett recited 216 digits of Pi without error during last year’s Pi day.
 
In Year 6, the children had only minutes to complete as many measurements as possible using their circular treats. Some classes discussed how Pi can be used to identify perfect circles and had a competition to see whose treat came closest to 3.14. Arguably the most enjoyable part was eating the treats afterwards!
 
In the afternoon, Year 6 took their learning outside and formed a human circle before solving some problems. The first challenge was to estimate the diameter if all 88 Year 6 students formed a human circle standing shoulder to shoulder. Theodore Karageorgiou correctly estimated 11 metres.
 
Ms. Emily Morgan-Evans
Maths Coordinator