Mathematicians pay tribute to Pi

  Wednesday, March 13, 2013 2:00 AM
  News

Pittsburg, KS

Mathematicians have a great sense of humor. Perhaps that’s why Pittsburg State University Professor Yaping Liu titled his upcoming lecture “Life of π (Pi).”

PSU will honor the mathematical symbol Pi with a lecture at 1:59 p.m. on Thursday, March 14, in 2:15 Yates Hall. Liu said listeners don’t need to be math nerds to enjoy his talk.

“It should be accessible to anyone with a minimal knowledge of geometry,” Liu said.

Liu will talk about one of the most interesting numbers in mathematics and share facts and personalities from ancient and modern times associated with Pi.

Pi is the Greek letter that mathematicians use to represent the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter, which is approximately 3.14159, hence its observance on 3-14. Pi has been calculated to more than a trillion digits beyond its decimal point and its infinite nature keeps mathematicians and computers busy trying to test the limits of their calculations. For typical calculations, however, only a few digits are required.

At the conclusion of Liu’s talk, the Math Department will serve -- pie.