Happy Pi Day
Happy Pi Day, one and all! This is a chance for you to memorize that most useful of numbers: Pi! Below, I've split it up into the mental chunks I use. Some of them have mnemonics built in, or are contextually related to the previous chunk: Sharing digits in the same place, counts that match numbers in the last segments. In some, the first digit is the sum of subsequent digits, or the last digit is the sum of preceding digits. Some have little patterns, perhaps palindromes or alternating digits descending; some have patterns so vague they don't have any real significance. Some were tougher; you just gotta memorize them. So, say it with me:
3. 14 15 (add the 1 to the 14) 9265 (again ends in 5) 35 8979 323 (Palindrome) 846 264 (46 reversed; 64 is 8 ^ 2) 338 3279 50288 41 971 693 993 (at end 93 is repeated; first digit taken from chunk before preceding chunk) 7510 59209 74 944 592 307 8164 (8 squared is 64) 062 862 08998 (starts with the first digits of the preceding two chunks, then palindromes) 6280 (6+2 = 8) 348 253 4211 (4,2,1 is 2^i for i = 2...0). 706 79 8214 (again, powers of two, with the 4 out of order) 808 651 32823 (palindrome) 06647
Have some Pi, plenty of digits for everyone!
Happy Pi Day Matt!
I was curious about your mnemonic device, I was hoping it told more of a story. Katie and I went out for our traditional Pi Day pie last night. I had coconut cream.
Student: I thought you said you were going to bring in Pie? Mr. Follett: I did, and look there are plenty of digits for everyone!
Cake
Unfortunately my mnemonic devices are mostly mathematical. Also, sometimes I vary the pitch of how I say the numbers in my mind, where a higher pitch corresponds to a higher number.
A friend of someone in the UCSD Math Club alerted me that they would be passing cake for Pi day. The cake was not a lie; it was delicious and moist. Apparently they made cake because it was easier than Pie.
root(pie) = cake
That cake looks tasty. What is that strange cube next to it? I get the feeling that if I break it I'll get extra hit points.
Portal
It's from the game Portal, where you're put through a series of challenges by a vaguely homicidal computer that speaks with a fairly sweet voice. The computer occasionally encourages you to finish with promises of cake, though if you turn the right corners in the game, you find graffiti such as "The Cake Is A Lie!", presumably from previous players. Whether or not the cake is, in fact, a lie, you'll have to find out by finishing the game :)
The cube is the "weighted companion cube". You have to occasionally manipulate the weighted cubes, and in one level where you have to carry it for a long time, the cube has hearts on it. The computer warns you that some people have become unduly attached to their weighted companion cube, and advises you that it is not alive.
I only got to play it a little, but it's pretty fun. (I've got a roommate - Vance, who's occasionally posted here - who's a heavy gamer).
Portal Cake
I have head of this game, but didn't know anything about it.