Students celebrate the number with attire, events

Karen Kleinman
April 9, 2007

It may seem that March 14 would only be a significant date to the geeks in the know, but most Olympians came together on "Pi Day" to celebrate the most famous irrational number. Widely publicized and socially accommodated, there were several activities throughout the day to increase the Pi mood.

The number "pi" is rounded to 3.14, which is how the date of March 14th was selected to represent Pi Day. Math teachers gave extra credit for students who celebrated. One of the most prominent displays of affection for this number was T-shirts, donned by students from all grades and math classes.

Senior Matt Hall may have been the only student to wake up at 3:14 a.m. and take a run around the block in Oly-orange shorts. "I celebrated because I love math to the second power," Hall said. "My favorite part of the day was feeling like I had contributed!"

Most other students met at the stadium before school and ran around the track 3.14 times.

The winners of a pie-eating contest that was held during both lunches were given shirts with "got ??" printed on them. Phil Rodin of the math department also ordered the same shirts for all of the math teachers.

Tickets were sold for students to be picked to participate in the pie-eating contest. Marie Callender's restaurant and Roth's Sunnyslope store each generously donated four cream pies. One student from each grade had their name drawn to participate for both lunches. Senior Adam Peulen and freshman Andrew Ponec were the Pi Day victors of the pie-eating contests.

Other T-shirt displays included a group that had "3.14" spelled out across four people, pictures of pies, bleached pi symbols, puffy-painted pie flavors, and many other creative approaches.

Junior Rachel Peterson was perhaps one of the most enthusiastic calculus students, carrying a pie around with her during school and eating nothing but pie all day, in addition to wearing a stylish homemade T-shirt.

Students went to extreme measures for Pi Day not only because of their enthusiasm, but also to earn the extra credit that math teachers offered. Math students could earn extra credit points in class if they brought in a pie, wore or brought homemade Pi shirts, completed word searches, or participated in the "Fun Run."

Some students, such as junior Brad Hogle, chose to ignore Pi Day for their own reasons. "I didn't celebrate it because I personally prefer the golden ratio when it comes to mathematically important figures," he said.

On the other hand, students such as junior Steven Dowling were just generally excited about Pi Day. "During weight training, I walked into a sports medicine class and wished them all a happy Pi Day."

Karen Kleinman is a junior at Sprague High School. She may be contacted through Barbara Curtin at bcurtin@statesmanjournal.com.