EASTHAMPTON — Tissue paper party decorations were the focus of a celebration at Easthampton High School Monday afternoon, but the gathering was less than traditional. Advanced Placement calculus students used the objects as rotational solids in a hands-on demonstration of rotating a region in space, during Pi Day — an annual celebration of the mathematical constant pi.
“We are using pi to calculate the volume of a cylinder, as a beginning stage,” said Advanced Placement calculus teacher Nellie Donohue. “We will then add up many cylinders to get the volume of something larger and more complex.”
Pi is the relationship between circumference and diameter. Donohue said a focus of Monday’s class was to encourage students to make their own connections in understanding real-life applications of circles.
“Circles have applications in technology, engineering, geography, weather,” said Donohue. “Without pi these calculations would be inaccurate.”
She noted the pi approximation of 3.14 is very poor and that the pi symbol on a calculator has an approximation that better expresses the infinite value.
“Pi Day is fun because we get to really focus on where circular things happen in the world,” she said. “When you’re studying math, if it’s not related to the world, you’re going to be pretty bored.”
Sarah Crosby can be reached at scrosby@gazettenet.com.