Pi Day, and ‘American Pi’ (CNN) {for those who like this sort of thing}

[eppur_se_muova]

In honor of Pi Day, March 14 (because it’s 3/14, like 3.14), I came up with the basis for this song, inspired by Don McClean’s 1971 song “American Pie,” when I was in high school. Feel free sing along with that tune.

American Pi
by Elizabeth Landau

A long, long time ago, it was one December when I thought I’d found the end of pi.
And if I’d had some batteries, my efforts would have surely pleased
That math fair judge, and that’s no lie.
But tests and papers made me shiver with every paper they’d deliver.
More bad news in chemistry,
Just needed that time to study.
I can’t remember if I cried when I realized that I hadn’t tried
Before something clicked off deep inside
And then, my calculator died.

CHORUS:
So why, why can’t I calculate pi
I just want to see the numbers 3.1415
And if that’s all, then let’s keep it alive
‘Cause my calculator seems to have died.
My calculator seems to have died.

Did you write the law of sines, or draw two perfect parallel lines
Without a ruler helping you?
Can you still use a protractor, or find just one imaginary factor
Of a polynomial of order 2?
Well I had a TI-83 when a great misfortune came to me
The screen began to blur — I couldn’t even find my curve!
I was a lonely teenage computer freak,
My pencils were chewed but my glasses were sleek,
And the future was looking pretty bleak
The day my calculator died.



Books, eraser, graphing paper, I was just a young number chaser
Searching for the holy grail.
Like Archimedes, Ramanujan, and Gregory, Leibniz, van Ceulen,
I could approximate, but then I’d fail!
My calculator was in a daze,
It just wouldn’t run on new AAAs.
The math fair was in an hour
And I was still out of power.
I knew that I was running out of time
A new formula would have been sublime
But all that I could do was rhyme
The day my calculator died.



***
Yes, there's more: http://scitech.blogs.cnn.com/2009/03/13/pi-day-and-american-pi/

[MineralMan]

1. I'll wait for 3/14/16. It's a better approximation of pi.

None of this sloppy math.

[4lbs]

2. Wouldn't PI time be at 03:14:16 am each night?

n/t

[chollybocker]

5. There's always time for PI.

And always room for pie. ;)

[Dr. Strange]

3. pi = 3

[eppur_se_muova]

4. That's what is says in Scripture.

Also according to a bill once passed by the Indiana state legislature.

[Bill McBlueState]

6. wondering if anyone else sees where this goes wrong

It took me longer than it should have, but I was, uh, kind of drunk at the time.

[Dr. Strange]

7. Wait, it's wrong?

:P
When I first saw it, I assumed that it was the usual "division by zero" error, but it turns out it's not.

[bananas]

8. pi = plus or minus 3

The error is assuming the square root is positive.