At the time I didn't know what the toy building set was called, in fact I didn't really know much of anything about what was going on out there.Well, time passes.
The builder of that backyard roller coaster has been featured twice recently in the local newspaper. As a result of the first of those appearances I discovered a YouTube video made by the young constructor of that very same roller coaster.
Pretty good stuff, I think.
But he has been in the newspaper and as a result of his first appearance I have learned that the construction toy is K'NEX.
I highly recommend that you follow that link and learn about Austin. There are two videos imbedded in the news story, at the end of the first of the two videos Austin recites from memory pi to 210 decimal places. Everyone should appreciate pi recited to 210 decimal places. Pi to 210 decimal places is a rare feat.
The second video embedded in the news story features Austron's newest K'NEX construction. I am just a tiny bit hesitant to embed this video because of information available in his second newspaper appearance that states that because he is the composer of the music he is able to place advertising on the video at YouTube and that the ad placement has earned him $5,000 (don't you love free enterprise?). But it seems to me that any playing of the video even an embedded on my blog video is going to reap the advertising revenue for a kid who richly deserves it so even if you don't follow that link here is his newest spectacularly wonderful construction.
The kid knows pi to 210 decimal places. And has no idea what the digit in the 211th place is.
I know 10 places, 3.14159 26535.
10 comments:
That's 5 more places than I know.
C=(pi)D
It's a surprisingly useful thing to know.
How is it useful? I cannot imagine unless it is some literary reference.
There are a lot of circles -- how far is it across the lake? Ride around it, and use pi to figure it out.
How big a pizza do we need for 8 people? Though that's a slightly different use of pi.
Useful.
Pi (π) is cool. When PP was on the math team in junior high school, the slogan of the team was "We love π." I, too, love π, especially apple π a la mode. I have a couple of pieces of π left from Thanksgiving, but I'll be eating that in about five minutes.
At Thanksgiving at the Smith house we had 3 π's for 5 eaters. 3π÷5= a lot of leftover π.
You guys are funny, but I still don't get it. Do you actually use pi(π) to figure out things? I doubt it.
Mrs. Smith -- I take polite exception to your doubt. As I said, knowing the properties of a circle comes in handy surprisingly often.
Let's schedule a practical application math lesson for me!
Lesson is such a loaded word. How about we take a bike ride, eat some pizza and bake a cake (blueberry?) the next time we're together? Way more fun, and it's what we like to do together anyway! I like 'lessons' that are just a different way of looking at stuff we already know, as I know you do, too.
On the subject of pi... When I was in the pep band at Gustavus, we would routinely yell "Pi!" at the scoreboard whenever there was 3:14 remaining. Dorky, I know.
Those roller coasters are super cool.
See? A great use of pi. And of course there is pi day every year on March 14th (3/14).
Another non math use of pi was related directly to the memorization of the 10 places, or so. A woman was asked for her social security number by someone who, she believed, had no right to. Instead of making waves (it was a hair salon, so that's sort of a joke), she gave them pi. 314-15-9265. It looks quite legitimate. It would work if someone asked for your phone number, and you wanted to give them a fake one. (Happens all the time, right?) 314-159-2653 looks pretty good. And if they happen to google it.....
Great topic, GZ.
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