When our son was in 3rd grade my husband taught him an easy way to remember the number for Pi. Our son proudly went to school with his knowledge on Pi day, and when the teacher asked if anyone knew the number for Pi he raised his hand. She called on him and he said “How I Need A Drink”. She said, “well, then go to the water fountain.” And, being the obliging little fellow that he was, he went to the water fountain and got a drink, without ever bothering to explain that he was trying to tell her the mnemonic to remember Pi.
To remember the number Pi memorize the mnemonic “How I need a drink, alcoholic of course, after the heavy lectures involving quantum mechanics,” The number Pi correlates to the number of letters in each of the words in that sentence.
3.141 592 653 589 79…
(Instead of the word “alcoholic”, for the kids you can substitute “pepsicola”. Trust me from experience, it will save school teachers confusion.)
Pi day is celebrated on Einstein’s birthday because of the date and the meaning of the number. Pi is roughly the ratio of a circles circumference to its diameter, also representing the curvature of space/time to energy sources which is a basis in Einstein’s principal of relativity.
To learn more about Pi Day or Albert Einstein read the guest posts my father-in-law, a physics professor wrote for Documama the past couple of Pi days.
