Video Sunday

Yesterday was Pi Day (3/14). To celebtrate, I ate some slices of pizza pie. Also, here is an explanation of how to figure out the area of a circle much as the ancient Greeks did. You'll notice that the principle is the same that's used in Calculus to measure the area under a curve. In fact, the Greeks used the same general method to calculate all sorts of areas and volumes. Of course it would be about a couple millenia before the invention of the Calculus where we could calculate the area under any defined curve.



Yesterday was also Albert Einstein's birthday. Here's an audio recording of the man himself explaining the significance of his most famous equation.



And finally, just for fun, here's what you get when you cross Gilbert & Sullivan with Ray Kurzweil. Enjoy.

Happy Birthday Albert!

Today is Albert Einstein's 129th birthday. It is also pi day. Therefore the two events are simultaneous. Or are they?

Bar fun with pi

Above is the pi animation which I featured before. I like it because it gives you a real perspective of what pi means as well as a sense of scale. For example, watch the video below and see if you think those bar patrons would've been fooled if they had been familiar with the above animation.



Naturally he would have had less success if they had been drinking beer from bottles, and if they'd been drinking from pint glasses

he could've stacked it even higher. (Ahh, but how much higher?) That's the power of knowing a little bit of math: you can win bar bets against those who know no math. (There might be some other advantages too.)

Happy Pi Day!

Have a very happy Pi Day! (3/14, get it?)