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By MARK GUYDISH markg@leader.net
Saturday, March 15, 2003 Page: 1A
DALLAS TWP. – March 14, 2003, at Dallas High School: An irrational day,
literally and mathematically. A transcendental experience. A crusty, creamy,
fruity, paper-loops-and-tin-pans kind of day.
That’s right, it was Pi-day, a combination of digits and desserts, an
homage to those who bake circular treats and those who compute the area of
circles.
“It’s been such a long, rough winter that we decided to do something
fun,” said Principal Frank Galicki, trying to explain the T-shirts with the
slogan “irrational but well-rounded,” the unusual pies, and the really long
chain of colored paper loops.
Assistant Principal Jim McGovern put it more succinctly. “It’s hard to be
mad when there’s pie!”
Pi-day comes annually on March 14 because the date in numbers – 3.14 – is
the first three digits of Pi, that quirky part of the formula for the area of
a circle: pi times the radius squared.
Students tried to draw perfect circles freehand, recited as many digits of
pi as they could remember (as far as anyone knows, it goes on infinitely
without repeating any pattern), made Pi T-shirts, answered Pi trivia quizzes,
and entered a pie-making contest.
“Did you taste our pie?” Kelly Corbett said in a voice combining innocent
exuberance and slick self-promotion. “All our ingredients are from Sweden.”
“Except the apples,” a teacher interrupted.
One pie included the printed warning: “Edible? Ha, anything is edible. I
think it is simply a matter of if it’s digestible.” Another was dubbed
“Irrationally Chocolate” – a nod to the fact that Pi is an irrational
number.
Don’t ask for an explanation. It involves “real numbers,” “ratios” and
“natural numbers.” Pi is also “transcendental,” meaning it is not the root
of any polynomial equation with rational coefficients. And that, any Pi nut
can tell you, means you can’t “square a circle” – if you needed proof.
Corbett and one of her pie-making partners, Rachel Martin, worked the
cafeteria like a Washington lobbyist. Her efforts paid off: They won “best
fruit pie” and tied for “best-tasting pie.”
A group of students toiled all morning in the auditorium, straightening out
a Pi chain – or paper representation of Pi made of 10 different colored paper
loops, each color representing a digit from 0 to 9. The loops were linked in
the order of the digits of Pi.
As several kids stretched the chain back and forth across the stage, others
worked with the rest of the thing, which sprawled everywhere. There were
chunks of Pi all the way up the aisle and into the hallway.
There were 7,147 links, breaking the old school record of 5,401, McGovern
said. Estimating each loop to be about 4 inches, the chain stretched 2,382
feet. That’s nearly half-a-mile.
The day ended with an assembly where McGovern announced the several dozen
winners of various contests, all of them entitled to a pizza and ice cream
social.
They named a pie king and pie queen, complete with pie-plate crowns and
rolling-pin scepter.
Chorus teacher Cassie Palfey did a mathematical rendition of Don McLean’s
anthem American Pie: “Find, find the value of Pi, starts 3 point 1 4 1 5 9.
Good ol’ boys gave it a try, but the decimal never dies, the decimal never
dies. …”
The crowd roared throughout the pie speed-eating contest, which included
teacher Sara Saylor, who conveniently sat in front of the only cream pie on
stage. A fellow teacher pushed her face into it at the start of the race.
“She told me to do it,” the pusher – Cheri Harden – insisted later.
But it was Richard Smith who won, his hands behind his back, his face
scouring the table like a rabid vacuum, his cheeks and lips puffed like a
nut-laden chipmunk when time was called.
And as the kids headed back to their homerooms for dismissal, McGovern let
out breath and muttered “That was exhausting!”
So, are you going to do it again next year?
He chuckled and grinned wide.
“Ohhh, yeah!”
Mark Guydish, a Times Leader staff writer, may be reached at 829-7161.