The Kid Should See This

Calculating Pi (π) with Darts

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Can you calculate Pi (π) by throwing darts at a square and circle target as randomly as possible? Physics Girl‘s Dianna Cowern and Veritasium‘s Derek Muller attempt the challenge, and when “randomly” doesn’t happen, they rethink their methods and try again.

Watch what they come up with in this video from March 14 (3/14) 2015: Calculating Pi with Darts.

dianna cowern
What is Pi? From PiDay.org:

“Pi (π) is the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter. Pi is a constant number, meaning that for all circles of any size, Pi will be the same.

“The diameter of a circle is the distance from edge to edge, measuring straight through the center. The circumference of a circle is the distance around.”

derek muller
When rounding, the result is 3.14 or 3.14159 or 3.14159265359, but as The New Yorker explains, “it appears to be an endless number—it has been computed to more than thirteen trillion digits, among which there is no pattern that repeats.”

Learn more on wikipedia and, courtesy of NPR’s SkunkBear, watch this handy visual explainer:

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TEACHING RESOURCES
• Celebrate Pi Day with NASA: Math challenges for K-12 students and educators, parents, museums, science centers and planetariums.
One Million Digits of Pi via PiDay.org.

Watch these math videos next:
The infinite life of pi (π)
2ⁿ, a story of the power of numbers from the 1961 Mathematica exhibit
• The Story of Zero – Getting Something from Nothing
How high can you count on your fingers?


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