In celebration of the International Day of Mathematics, and 'Pi Day', Camosun College students had the opportunity to participate in an event and win prizes related to Pi, and pie.
"[First] they have to calculate Pi by hand, and if you remember back to elementary school, that's not an easy thing," said Patrick Montgomery, organizer of the event and chair of mathematics and statistics at the school. "After that we have a pie-eating contest. Not Pi the number, but pie the actual delicacy. So that'll be a little bit more fun at the end."
Pi Day is celebrated every year on March 14, which corresponds with the first three digits of Pi 鈥� 3.14 鈥� which is the ratio of a circle鈥檚 circumference to its diameter, and is represented by the symbol for the 16th letter of the Greek alphabet.
[The day] gives us a chance to look back and celebrate some of the importance that mathematics plays in our society," said Montgomery, who admitted he only remembers about six or seven digits of Pi. "Mathematics, statistics, data analysis are essentially the key fundamental understandings of much of our science. It's fundamental to our development of science and understanding nature as a whole."
After charging through the gantlet of math, which involved calculating Pi from the circumference and diameter of aluminum cans, six contestants took to the pie-eating contest where the fastest time was just under one minute, though all six were considered winners.
After the event at Camosun's Interurban campus, participants and spectators were allowed to engorge themselves with pies made by culinary arts students.
