Rounding Down Isn't Good Enough for This Kid

Sam Stephens 
Lindbergh High School, 9th grade

Awesome Action: Sam Stephens recited from memory the first 267 digits describing pi. 

Why: The pi contest is an annual tradition in the Lindbergh High School math department, and all students are invited to participate. He apparently impressed his Honors Algebra 2 classmates with his memorization abilities—and that right there is a good reason to do it. However, winners also get a $20 gift card to Pi for pizza and a drinking glass etched with the pi symbol (see photo.)

How:  “I memorized numbers in groups of 10, then grouped those groups into sets of 50,” Stephens said. He won the contest last year, too, which made it easier this time, he said. He is part of PEGS, an accelerated program.

What: According to the school district, the first 267 digits of pi are 3.1415926535897932384626433832795028841971693993751058209749445923078164062862089986
28034825342117067982148086513282306647093844609550582231725359408128481117450284102
70193852110555964462294895493038196442881097566593344612847564823378678316527120190
914564856692346034

When:  Pi Day, March 14 (Get it? 3-14)

What more: Pi is the constant ratio between the circumference of a circle and its diameter. For some reason, pi goes on and on when you try to finish the division on it, so computers have taken it up to 5 trillion digits, according to Wikipedia. Prior to this, gear-driven calculators took pi up to 1,120 places. In a practical sense, physicists need only take pi up to 39 digits to calculate on an atomic (very small) level, again, according to Wikipedia. Engineers might take it up to six digits. A standard description of pi goes up to 50 digits. What ever happened to rounding down to 3?