Inside the News Net

Frequently Requested

• SM Fire Safe Council

• Santa Anita Fire

• Santa Anita Incident (Mud Slide, 5/22/08)

Annual Sierra Madre Events

• ACS Relay for Life

• Friends of the Library Art Fair

• Candlelight Christmas Caroling

• Chamber of Commerce Citizen of the Year Banquet

• Firefighter's Annual Christmas Ball

• Firefighter's Annual Easter Egg Hunt

• Firefighter's Annual Flapjack Breakfast

• Fourth of July

• Friends of the Library Annual Art Fair

• Friends of the Library Annual Wine and Cuisine Tasting

• Frosty Arrives in Kersting Court

• Halloween Events

• Huck Finn Day

• Kiwanis Annual Pancake Breakfast

• Mater Dolorosa Passionist Father's Retreat House Fiesta

• Mt. Wilson Trail Race

• Older American of the Year Banquet

• Pioneer Days

• Sierra Madre POA Car Show

• Sierra Madre Rose Parade Float

• Sierra Madre Surf Club Annual "Search and Rescue Team" Benefit Luau

• Wistaria Festival

Arts in Sierra Madre

• Arts Main  Page

• Concerts in the Park

• Films/TV made in Sierra Madre
• Sierra Madre Sue Behrens' Live Music News

Sierra Madre Business

• Business Directory

• Chamber of Commerce

• Downtown Business District Map

• Merchant Web Pages

• Realtor Web Pages

• Small Business Resource Page

Community of Sierra Madre

• Churches

• City Council Agendas

• City Gvmt./Administration

• Demographics

• Dining

• Health Care Providers

• Historic Sierra Madre

• How Far From Sierra Madre To???

• Lizzie's Trail Inn

• Local Lodging

• Non-Profit/Civic Organization Web Pages

• Parks

• Quintessential Sierra Madre

• Sierra Madre Realtors/Homebuyer Resource Page

• Schools

• Seniors

• Street Map

• Transportation

• Utilities

• Veteran's Memorial Wall

• Youth  

Sierra Madre Real Estate

• Appraisers (Coming Soon)

• Mortgage Calculator

• Realtor Web Pages

• Title Agent/Company Web Pages

• Sierra Madre Realtors/Homebuyer Resource Page

The Rest of the News Net

• Awards/Testimonials

• "Catching Up With..." Interview Column

• E-ditorials

• Elvis

• Event Photo Archives (See Links at Top of Page)

• Glenn Lambdin - On My Mind These Days

• IAFF Memorial Section

• Irish Page

• Joke Pages (thousands of jokes)

• Letters to the E-ditor

• Mater Dolorosa Retreat House

• Obituaries

• Pioneer Cemetery

• Proposed Library

• Random Observations by Pat Ostrye

• Quotes

• Sierra Madre Rose Float Assn.

• Sierra Madre City College

• Sierra Madre Surf Club

Local Business Web Pages

Students at Bethany Christian School Celebrate Pi Day

Friday, March 14, 2008

By Bill Coburn

Students from Bethany Christian School joined math enthusiasts around the world in their celebration of Pi day, on of course, 3/14.  They did not take it to the extreme, however, and celebrate Pi second, which would have been on 3/14 at 1:59:26. 

Teacher Ryan Kloostra started the festivities by providing a little history of Pi for the students, noting that Pi was first used at about 1,900 B.C. by the ancient Babylonians.  Ancient Egyptians used Pi at about 1600 B.C.  Mathematicians in the modern era began using the sign for Pi in the 1700s.

According to Wikipedia “The first Pi Day celebration was held at the San Francisco Exploratorium in 1988, with staff and public marching around one of its circular spaces, and then consuming fruit pies; the museum has since added pizza pies to its Pi Day menu. The founder of Pi Day, the "Prince of Pi", is Larry Shaw, now retired from the Exploratorium, but still helping out with the celebrations.

After Mr. Kloostra completed his background of Pi day lesson, the students were released to the school grounds, where they identified circular items, and determined the radius, the circumference, and the volume of the item.  Following this activity, the students returned to the classroom, where two of the students recited from memory as far into the Pi formula as they could.  The formula itself, with the help of computers, has been calculated to more than one trillion digits past the decimal.  The two students, in a remarkable display of memorization, got to 116 and 124 digits past the decimal.  See videos by clicking on the link below.

As much as the students seemed to be enjoying their time on the grounds working with the formula, and cheering on their fellow students during the recitation of Pi, there was no doubt that their favorite part of the event was the end.  After completing their exercises, the kids were all treated to some Pi(e).

Click an image to enlarge.  To view videos from Pi Day, click here.

Copyright © 1998 - 2008 by The Coburn Group, Sierra Madre. All trademarks or product names mentioned herein are the property of their respective owners. All photographs and videos on this site Copyright 1998 - 2007, by Bill Coburn, Sierra Madre, CA unless otherwise noted.  Any reference to the City of Sierra Madre or Sierra Madre applies to the community of Sierra Madre and not the city government. The City of Sierra Madre, California government is not affiliated with Sierra Madre News.Net at this time. Any city government information provided herein has been previously published for public dissemination and is shown here as a public service of Sierra Madre News.Net without explicit permission of the government of the City of Sierra Madre.