Welcome to Joseph Young’s Puzzleria!
Today is Friday the 13th. Tomorrow is Pi Day the 14th.
The next day is “Ides-day” the 15th.
Indeed it is a week chock-full of celebrations, with St. Paddy’s Day on March 17 and, best of all, the Feast of St. Joseph on March 19!
A year ago Pi Day fell on Friday, March
14th. Friday only sometimes falls on the 13th but Pi Day
always falls only on the 14th, and always only in March. (And “Ides-day”
always falls on the 15th of March… and May, July and October, and on
the 13th of other months.)
Pi Day is celebrated each March 14
because that date is written as 3/14 in numerical notation (third
month/fourteenth day), and the number pi is often rounded off to 3.14. But Pi Day in this present year of 2015 is extra special because its date in
month/day/year notation is written 3/14/15, and the first five digits of pi are
3.1415.
Such month/day/year numerical notion of
dates sometimes includes all four digits of a year. So, because the first twelve
digits of pi are 3.14159265358, an even more special Pi Day occurred in the
centennial year of Christopher Columbus’ voyage, March 14, 1592 at 6:53:58 a.m.
or p.m. (3/14/1592, 6:53:58). The Pi-planets must have all aligned on that Pi Day!
The irrational number pi, symbolized by the Greek
letter pi, is paradoxically defined as the ratio (!) of any circle’s circumference to its diameter. Its value
is 3.14159265358979…
Those digits to the right of the decimal
point continue on forever in random fashion. Such numbers are called
irrational because they cannot be expressed as a ratio of two integers. Rational
numbers such as ½ (0.5), 1/3 (0.333…), 1/11 (0.090909…) and 2 (2/1 or 2.0) can
all be expressed as an integer divided by a non-zero integer. Most numbers with which we
are familiar are rational.
But not pi. A reasonably close
approximation of the irrational number pi, however, is the rational number
22/7, or three-and-one-seventh which, expressed as a decimal, is 3.142857142857…
Poison Pi
Because pi is the ratio of circumference to diameter, in any given circle either the diameter must
be irrational or the circumference must be irrational. Both diameter and
circumference cannot be rational. This is because multiplying (or
dividing) a rational number by an irrational number “poisons” the rational
number, making it irrational also. (Such poisoning also occurs with addition or
subtraction.)
It is as if irrational numbers are all contagious with some kind
of boundless transcendental flu bug transmitted via mathematical contact. The formula for a Circumference, given a
Diameter, is [C = (pi) (D)] and the formula for a Diameter, given a
Circumference, is [D = C/pi]. Contagion ensues!
But now, for something you are not going
to catch… especially if he is running ahead of you in a marathon. Blogger
David, who has contributed greatly to Puzzleria! (including his posting of
creative puzzles), tipped us off (on the AESAP blog) to the added special
once-in-a-century significance of this year’s Pi Day that occurs but once every
century.
David, who is also an avid distance
runner, is participating tomorrow in a 3.14-mile running event which begins in
the morning at 9:26:53 (53 seconds after 9:26 a.m.). The next five digits in pi
after 3.1415... are ...92653.
Hope you can go the distance this week
with this menu of “puzzle pi” slices. Take as much time as you like. But try not to repeat yourself.
But first, a poem about Pi:
Three-Point-One-Four-And-Twenty-Blackboards Pi
Zero blackbirds are baked in my pie,
Only blackboards from class, math and sci:
Constants, signs, an ellipse
Decimal points, superscripts
Shall Pi lovers’ taste buds satisfy.
Reads my recipe: “Add one sweet P
To an mc2 Equivalency,
Fold around one hot current
(sIc)
With a whisk or a stir-in
stick…
Bake, let cool, and then serve P-I-E!”
Serve up one 2.7 ounce segment
Then a slice with a sweet P-green pigment…
What remains in the pan
Is not pumpkin, pecan
But of i magination a figment.
Bonus Appetizer Slice:
Literary
Link
There is a literary connection between
two of the five puzzle slices on this week’s menu. What are the slices and
their link?
MENU
Easy As Pi Slice:
Scrambled egguations
Make sense of the following three equations:
(A mixed-up mighty tree) + (3.14...) = (A
giraffe’s cousin)
(Musical paces) - (3.14...) = (A discombobulated Ed Kranepool)
(Scrambled big burgers) + (3.14...) = (Garlicky
shrimp)
Title Search Slice:
Consider the short palindromic title of
the Vladimir Nabokov novel “Ada,” one word in the The Bird and the Bee song title
“You’re a Cad” and one word in the Slade song title “Cum on Feel the Noize.”
What do all three have to do with pi?
Crib Note Slice:
Speak, Mnemosyne
Recalling the following self-referential
mnemonic device might help a student navigate or regurgitate the first several (actually, thirty-two) digits of pi on a misguided geometry exam:
“Via a crib, a pupil remembers pi.
Pupils count all words’ quantity regarding letters. Sentences put in the
mnemonic give pupils pi digits, they who are examined. Why? To discern
geometric skill!”
But it does not exactly trip off the
tongue. You can do better. Do you want to take the time to do so and share it with the rest of us?
And now, a musical interlude, brought to you courtesy of blogger ecoarchitect, who commented about it at Blainesville.
Century Slice:
At some point late within the first 50
digits of pi something very fitting occurs, something that will occur often
later on in the endless skein of digits, perhaps even an infinite number of
times.
What is it? Where exactly does it occur?
Where does it occur next?
Piebald’s Ill Slice:
Seven-letter heaven
Each of the six paragraphs below has at
two words that share something in common related to this week’s pi theme. Name
what it is and, if possible, give another word sharing the same property for
each paragraph.
1. Each March 14 Picasso and Pizzaro throw
Pi Day picnics at Pimlico Park. They serve a pitcher of pilsner, pierogi with
picante sauce, pickled pig-feet and pimento-stuffed pickles. But this year,
after overstuffing his piehole, Piebald Pinhead, one of the piggier, more
pitiful guests, reached for his pillbox…
2. With spinach dip spilled still on his
lapel, Pinhead -- After spicily muttering his opinion about Pi Day in the form
of a “ratio epithet” -- drooled spittle as he apishly sought gastronomic relief.
Piebald was a picnicker in seek of a cure. Pi Day was a picnic in seek of an
epicure. ‘Twas a sad episode…
3. In his typical dopiest Pinhead fashion,
Piebald stirred copious amounts of expired aspirin tablets into a bowl of tapioca
pudding…
4. After gulping his pills as if they were
potpies, Piebald started napping. After waking, despite his earlier overindulgence, he craved a
second helping of party food so began supping on snacks, happily dipping chips into dampish room-temp dip, nipping them with his cuspids like a vampire, then dumping Piebald cowpies looward with flushed face. He could not have been
happier…
5. …Unless, of course, he were fishing in a boat equipped with plushy seat cushions. “Whoopie!”
shouted still-peckish Piebald as he spotted a fishin’ hole a-jumpin’ with crappie
and tilapia…
6. Which, before Piebald could reel them in, were snatched up and scarfed down by platypi enircling the
teeming-with-rhizopi pond buzzard-like.
Every Friday at
Joseph Young’s Puzzle -ria! we publish a new menu of fresh word puzzles, number
puzzles, logic puzzles, puzzles of all varieties and flavors. We cater to
cravers of scrumptious puzzles!
Fishy Slice:
Every Friday at
Joseph Young’s Puzzle -ria! we publish a new menu of fresh word puzzles, number
puzzles, logic puzzles, puzzles of all varieties and flavors. We cater to
cravers of scrumptious puzzles!
