The ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter is expressed as Pi (?), the 16th letter of the Greek alphabet. Mathematicians call it “irrational” because it goes on forever, but it’s typically rounded off to 3.14 – so March 14 was selected as “National Pi Day.”
In Flushing, students at Holy Cross High School celebrated on Monday, March 15 with a Pi digit contest, to see who could remember the largest number of digits of the number – which has been considered since biblical times and is currently calculated to a mind-boggling 51 billion (yes, billion) decimal places.
Mary Pollini, a Math teacher at the school, located at 26-20 Francis Lewis Boulevard, got the day instituted.
In addition to the contest the walls are decorated with posters illustrating words wit “pi” in them, such as “utopian” or “epic,” and the school cafeteria serves several varieties of pie, which experts say is easier to swallow than math.
Shown here, Holy Cross High School Pi digit champ Sophomore Pierrot Senat (241 digits) is flanked by runner-up Junior Kevin Dillon (left, 125 digits) and Junior Alex Etienne, 3rd Place (123 digits).
