Skip to main content

Pi Day

March 14 is Pi Day.  Those who have some familiarity with basic arithmetic will know that pi is a mathematical constant - a ratio, in fact - whose value is approximated to 3.14.  So 14/3 (or 3/14, as the Americans write it), today, is pi day.

Interestingly or coincidentally, it is also the birthday of Albert Einstein, arguably the greatest genius who ever lived. 

The New Yorker has published, among many illuminating articles, a very humorous questionnaire on the occasion: Diagnostic Exam: Do You Have Math Anxiety?  A sample question:

What is a hypotenuse? 
(a) A very graceful hypot. 
(b) An overweight chanteuse. 
(c) The  French word for profound boredom.
Mathematics is often assumed to be a scary monster.  Actually it can be sheer fun if we learn to exercise our logical faculty properly.  Most people don't want to think - that's the simple truth.  Mathematics calls for some abstract thinking also which is assumed to be boring or even scary.  Hence many give up maths.  In other words, they give up logical thinking.  And they run after frauds like godmen and miracle workers.  

There's so much irrationality in our world today in spite of all the progress that we are making  with the help of science and technology which are founded on mathematics.  We want the benefits of rational thinking.  We have no shame in accepting the contributions of rational thinkers when it suits us.  But when it comes to our petty notions about many things which are nothing more than superstitions, we cling tenaciously to inanities.  

That's why Pi Day is important.  We have to bring some basic maths into our lives.  Some simple rational thinking.  

A concluding question adapted from The New Yorker:

What do you do when you travel to a foreign country and need to figure out the currency?
(a) I ask, “How much is that in real money?”
(b) I ring up my godman's receptionist.
(c) I demand nationalism and seek to convert my country's currency as the international currency. 

Comments

  1. Loved the last one!! :)

    Happy Pi Day to you too!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. :) you beat me to it, last year I did write a blog on this.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Morning mail from New Yorker reminded me, Sharmila.

      Delete
  3. Teaching math has become a bone of contention - how do we teach math correctly? Do we make kids memorize tables, or do we teach them to think? Do we follow traditional methods of teaching or do we apply methods that are confusing to parents but ok to kids? Many Indian friends have made their kids learn their tables. While I was wondering what I should do with my son who hasn't yet 'achieved' that fete, my son comes home and tells me the solution to a multiplication sentence and asks me to give him another one. I try him and he solves that. I ask him how he did it and he tells me the logic his teacher has taught. Do I boast that he knows the tables now....:D? Not really. But I am happy he is understanding the method.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. A very interesting question from you, Sunaina (as usual, I must add).

      Teaching math requires entirely different strategies according to the level. At the elementary level, it is important to teach the primary tables to the child. Basic addition and multiplication should be part of the child's primary skills. You can't do away with rote learning here.

      The logical skills develop gradually. No child will enjoy learning geometry unless he learns to employ logical skills. When he comes to algebra, abstract thinking and analytical skills also become necessary. The real skill of the teacher lies in developing those skills and it is not a very easy job. But it need not be a Herculean task either.

      I understand that teachers often fail in ensuring that the pupil knows the fundamentals required for the particular concept. For example, before teaching factorisation a teacher should ensure that the pupil knows basic arithmetic of addition and multiplication as well as employing those skills to divide numbers into their possible factors.

      At the higher levels, the challenges are very demanding simply because a lot of fundamental concepts have to be understood by the pupil before getting into the complexities involved.

      Delete
  4. An interesting post and discussion here:) By the way, I wish many people read this post and ponder over the virtues of logical and critical thinking.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. As far as I have understood, people don't want to think. They want others to do that job for them. That's why we have so many religion-related problems these days.

      Delete
  5. What a great post! I laughed out loud at option c of the hypotenuse question :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The credit should go to the New Yorker.

      Glad you liked it.

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Adventures of Toto as a comic strip

  'The Adventures of Toto' is an amusing story by Ruskin Bond. It is prescribed as a lesson in CBSE's English course for class 9. Maggie asked her students to do a project on some of the lessons and Femi George's work is what I would like to present here. Femi converted the story into a beautiful comic strip. Her work will speak for itself and let me present it below.  Femi George Student of Carmel Public School, Vazhakulam, Kerala Similar post: The Little Girl

The Little Girl

The Little Girl is a short story by Katherine Mansfield given in the class 9 English course of NCERT. Maggie gave an assignment to her students based on the story and one of her students, Athena Baby Sabu, presented a brilliant job. She converted the story into a delightful comic strip. Mansfield tells the story of Kezia who is the eponymous little girl. Kezia is scared of her father who wields a lot of control on the entire family. She is punished severely for an unwitting mistake which makes her even more scared of her father. Her grandmother is fond of her and is her emotional succour. The grandmother is away from home one day with Kezia's mother who is hospitalised. Kezia gets her usual nightmare and is terrified. There is no one at home to console her except her father from whom she does not expect any consolation. But the father rises to the occasion and lets the little girl sleep beside him that night. She rests her head on her father's chest and can feel his heart...

Are You Sane?

Illustration by Gemini AI A few months back, a clinical psychiatrist asked me whether anyone in my family ever suffered from insanity. “All of us are insane to some degree,” I wanted to tell her. But I didn’t because there was another family member with me. We had taken a youngster of the family for counselling. I had forgotten the above episode until something happened the other day which led me to write last post . The incident that prompted me to write that post brought down an elder of my family from the pedestal on which I had placed him simply because he is a very devout religious person who prays a lot and moves about in the society like the gentlest soul that ever lived in these not-so-gentle terrains. I also think that the severe flu which descended on me that night was partly a product of my disillusionment. The realisation that one’s religion and devotion that guided one for seven decades hadn’t touched one’s heart even a little bit was a rude shock to me. What does re...

Loving God and Hating People

Illustration by Gemini AI There are too many people, including in my extended family. who love God so much that other people have no place in their hearts. God fills their hearts. They go to church or other similar places every day and meet their God. I guess they do. But they return home from the place of worship only to pour out the venom in their hearts on those around them. When I’m vexed by such ‘religious’ people I consult Dostoevsky’s novel The Brothers Karamazov in which there are some characters who are acutely vexed by spiritual questions. Let me leave Ivan Karamazov to himself, as he has been discussed too much already. In Book II, Chapter 4 [ A lady of Little Faith ], a troubled woman comes to Father Zosima, the wise monk, and confesses her spiritual struggle. “I long to love God,” she says. She knows that she cannot love God without loving her fellow human beings, or at least doing some service to them. The truth is, she says, “I cannot bear people. The closer they ...

Joys of Onam and a reflection

Suppose that the whole universe were to be saved and made perfect and happy forever on just one condition: one single soul must suffer, alone, eternally. Would this be acceptable? Philosopher William James asked that in his 1891 book, The Moral Philosopher and the Moral Life . Please think about it once again and answer the question for yourself. You, as well as others, are going to live a life without a tinge of sorrow. Joyful existence. Life in Paradise. The only condition is that one person will take up all the sorrows of the universe on him-/herself and suffer – alone, eternally. What do you say? James’s answer is a firm no . “Not even a god would be justified in setting up such a scheme,” James asserted, knowing too well how the Bible justified a positive answer to his question. “It is expedient that one man should die for the people, so that the nation can be saved” [John 11:50]. Jesus was that one man in the Biblical vision of redemption. I was reading a Malayalam period...