Happy Pie (π) Day!

Let's get Irrational, shall we?

Thanks to the initiative of our most beloved Math tutor: Nicole the Math Lady, (see here her website) today we decided to bake a π Pie! A triple berry π Pie.

Along with this hands-on approach, I wanted the kids to truly apply the concept and understand what π is, so we got ourselves calculating π on our very own triple berry pie!

Do you want to see how we did it?

Let me start with the pie recipe and from there we will apply the process of calculating π.

Triple Berry Pie Recipe

INGREDIENTS:

CRUST

• 2 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour

• 1/4 teaspoon salt

• 1 cup cold butter, cubed

• 6 to 8 tablespoons ice water

FILLING

• 3 cups of mixed berries ( we used frozen, thawed, and drained)

• 1 cup of cornstarch

• Dash of salt

• 1/3 cup of water

• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

• 1 tablespoon of fresh lemon juice

• 2 tablespoons of butter

Directions

1. In a large bowl, mix flour and salt; cut in butter until crumbly. Gradually add ice water, tossing with a fork until dough holds together when pressed. Divide dough into 2 portions so that 1 is slightly larger than the other. Shape each into a disk. Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour or overnight.

2. For the filling: in a large saucepan, whisk sugar, cornstarch, salt, water, and, if desired, cinnamon until smooth; add blueberries. Bring to a boil; cook and stir 2 minutes or until thickened. Cool slightly.

3. Preheat oven to 400°. Gently fold raspberries, strawberries, blackberries, and lemon juice into the blueberry mixture. On a lightly floured surface, roll out a larger portion of dough to a 1/8-in.-thick circle; transfer to a 9-in. pie plate. Trim crust to 1/2 in. beyond the rim of the plate. Add filling; dot with butter.

4. Roll remaining dough to a 1/8-in.-thick circle; cut into 1/2-in.-wide strips. Arrange over filling in a lattice pattern. Trim and seal strips to edge of bottom crust; flute edge. Bake 10 minutes.

5. Reduce oven setting to 350°; bake 45-50 minutes or until crust is golden brown and filling is bubbly. Cool on a wire rack.

Recipe from https://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/mixed-berry-pie/

While hubby baked the pie, I stepped in to carefully cut out the Pi symbol and numbers. I am not much of a baker so the craft part of the process called me, haha. I think It came out pretty. What do you think?

Now, let's find π!

1. Measure the Circumference

2. Measure the Diameter

3. Divide the results; Circumference/Diameter

4. and... it should be pretty close to 3.1415926535897932 as far as our pie went :)

I think ours came pretty close, maybe we should be more precise next time! Or maybe... we should just whip another pie? I think chocolate could help us out obtain more accurate results!😂

What is your favorite flavor of accuracy?

This was so much fun, I am thinking to ask the kids to recite the Pi number if they want a slice, after all, is a math lesson and little effort doesn't hurt anybody. right? Can you hear my 16-year-old in agony right now in the background?😊😁

I hope you celebrate today, hands-on as well.

Finally, I will drop below a couple of links to help your Pi Day go superb!

Remember it is OK to go Irrational once a year! Go Irrational! Today is Pi Day.

LINKS

https://nicolethemathlady.com/announcements/show-me-your-pi/

https://www.mathsisfun.com/numbers/pi.html