i want you to imagine you’re at a dinner party, and for dessert, your host is serving apple pie. now, you’re not really an apple pie sort of person normally — you like it from time to time, but you’re awfully picky about it, and if it’s not done just right, it’s not for you — so you pass on taking some when it gets passed around. but then everyone else starts exclaiming about how delicious this pie is, how crisp it is, how flavorful, how amazing it was in star trek, so you take a piece just to see what all the fuss is about. and sure enough, it’s delicious. it’s so delicious, in fact, that you start asking questions about it, bothering the host for the recipe, paying a lot more attention to what a well-made pie it really is. and then it turns out the pie studied english literature at berekely and sometimes gets photographed reading to small children, that the pie regularly walks around in hilariously failtastic hipster-douche plaid and engages in ~intellectual competitions~ with other pies it knows, and the more you learn, the more the taste of the pie starts to curdle in your mouth. it’s so delicious that it’s TOO delicious, and probably you’re going to have cravings for this pie now whether you want them or not and you don’t, you don’t want those cravings, you don’t even LIKE apple pie. so you try to tell yourself you don’t like it that much really, that it’s not that good, that it’s probably the sort of pie that’s a total dick in real life and not in the endearing way like it comes off in interviews either, but it doesn’t help. it doesn’t make the pie any less fantastic, it doesn’t make you enjoy the pie any less, and you become consumed with your frustration at this fact — how dare this pie come along and make you hunger after it? how DARE this pie be so crisp and flavorful and fantastic in star trek? HOW DARE THIS PIE GO TO MUSIC FESTIVALS WITH A SALT AND PEPPER BEARD?? — until eventually you are standing on a table in front of the whole party, an empty pie dish held over your head, screaming “WHY WOULD ANYONE EVEN MAKE THIS PIE”
It may be irrational but pi plays an important role in the everyday work of scientists at NASA.
What Is Pi ?
Pi is the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter. It is also an irrational number, meaning its decimal representation never ends and it never repeats. Pi has been calculated to more than one trillion digits,
Why March 14?
March 14 marks the yearly celebration of the mathematical constant pi.
More than just a number for mathematicians, pi has all sorts of
applications in the real world, including on our missions. And as a holiday that encourages more
than a little creativity – whether it’s making pi-themed pies or
reciting from memory as many of the never-ending decimals of pi as
possible (the record is 70,030 digits).
While 3.14 is often a precise enough approximation,
hence the celebration occurring on March 14, or 3/14 (when written in standard U.S. month/day format), the first known celebration occurred in 1988, and in
2009, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a resolution designating
March 14 as Pi Day and encouraging teachers and students to celebrate
the day with activities that teach students about pi.
5 Ways We Use Pi at NASA
Below are some ways scientists and engineers used pi.
Keeping Spacecraft Chugging Along
Propulsion engineers use pi to determine the volume and surface area of propellant tanks. It’s how they size tanks and determine liquid propellant volume to keep spacecraft going and making new discoveries.
Getting New Perspectives on Saturn
A technique called pi transfer uses the gravity of Titan’s moon, Titan, to alter the orbit of the Cassini spacecraft so it can obtain different perspectives of the ringed planet.
Learning the Composition of Asteroids
Using pi and the asteroid’s mass, scientists can calculate the density of an asteroid and learn what it’s made of–ice, iron, rock, etc.
Measuring Craters
knowing the circumference, diameter and surface area of a crater can tell scientists a lot about the asteroid or meteor that may have carved it out.
Determining the Size of Exoplanets
Exoplanets are planets that orbit suns other than our own and scientists use pi to search for them. The first step is determining how much the light curve of a planet’s sun dims when a suspected planets passes in front of it.
GBP: *buys 7 stings of patio lights from neighbor for $20 to replace 10-year-old patio lights that have a section of string that no longer lights*
Me: So you’re going to replace all the old ones with these?
GBP: Yeah.
Me: Are you going to be able to throw the old ones out?
GBP: What do you mean?
Me: (after 19 years of marriage) I mean you have an inherent inability to throw anything away, even if it’s not working. And these are only partially broken.
GBP:
GBP:
GBP:
GBP: I’m sure you can sneak them out in the middle of the night…
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