Song of the Day - Mathematical Pi

Today is Pi Day and our resident maths nerd Susan Omand celebrates with a Song of the Day choice...



What do you mean, you've never heard of Pi Day? Pi Day is always celebrated on March 14th (3.14 if you're American... see what they did there?) and is not to be confused with Pi Approximation Day which is celebrated on July 22nd (22/7... I see a pattern forming) and yes, you can eat pie on Pi Day, in fact it is actively encouraged, especially if it's a round pie.



So what is Pi? (science bit paragraph coming up, feel free to skip to the song at the end)



Pi, in case you've forgotten your school mathematics, is all to do with circles and is, technically speaking, the ratio of a circle's circumference (the length all the way round the edge) to its diameter (The length of a line from edge to edge across the exact middle). It's also interesting as a number in decimal format because the pattern of numbers after the decimal point NEVER ends and NEVER repeats. You know like if you write 1/3 as a decimal it's 0.3333333 (and so on til you wear out the 3 key on the keyboard) and is a never ending number but it repeats the 3. So pi is known as an irrational number (mind you we're all irrational before coffee.)



OK to the song. I found this in my hunt for something pi related - you very nearly got the original American Pie, or Einstein A-Go-Go (it's also Einstein's birthday today) but this is more properly pi related.







 The song "Mathematical Pi" by Ken Ferrier and Antoni Chan



Image - piday.com