The 2018 NASA Pi Day challenge features math problems used by several of the agency's missions, like the InSight Mars lander, Kepler space telescope and Juno spacecraft at Jupiter.
NASA is inviting the public to celebrate Pi Day (March 14) by sharing a series of cosmic calculations for kids and adults to solve.
The "Pi in the Sky" challenge was created by the Education Office of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, and is now in its fifth year. The challenge will feature math problems to calculate for Martian earthquakes, helium rain on Jupiter and the rotation rate of the first interstellar visitor ever discovered, asteroid 'Oumuamua. The topics of last year's Pi Day challenge included craters with butterfly-shaped ejecta, or tossed material, and the total solar eclipse.
Pi is a number whose digits go on forever, but it's most popularly known by the first three: 3.14 (hence March 14). It is a mathematical constant often denoted by the symbol π. Pi comes in handy when determining the circumference or the surface area of a round celestial body. It also helps engineers and scientists program the precise orbits of satellites and spacecraft. such as the impressive pirouettes the Cassini spacecraft performed before its "death dive." [9 Surprising Facts About Pi]
Ota Lutz, a senior education specialist at JPL, believes everyone should attempt the Pi Day Challenge, even if they aren't familiar with these math tools. Students in grades 5 through 12 are especially invited to participate, and JPL offers resources for educators who want to use the math problems in their classrooms.
"All of the problems in the 'Pi in the Sky' challenge are real problems that JPL scientists and engineers solve using pi," Lutz said in a statement.
Solutions to the illustrated questions will be posted on March 15, according to NASA. Pi Daychallenge problems from previous years can be found on the website, too.
Follow Doris Elin Salazar on Twitter @salazar_elin. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.
Laporan Wartawan TribunJakarta.com, Rr Dewi Kartika H
TRIBUNJAKARTA.COM, JAKARTA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) mengundang masyarakat untuk merayakan Pi Day yang jatuh pada hari ini, Rabu (14/3/2018).
NASA merupakan lembaga pemerintah milik Amerika Serikat yang bertanggung jawab atas program luar angkasa Amerika Serikat dan penelitian umum luar angkasa jangka panjang.
Kini saat merayakan Pi Day, NASA membuat berbagai serangkaian soal-soal terkait perhitungan kosmik untuk anak-anak dan orang dewasa untuk dipecahkan
Namun sebelumnya apakah Anda tahu apa itu Pi Day? Mari Kita simak!
Google Doodle hari ini hadirkan tampilan yang sungguh menggugah demi rayakan Pi Day.
Lalu apa arti sebenarnya Pi Day atau Hari Pi, dan kenapa dirayakan pada hari ini?
March 14 is Pi Day — that’s pi, not pie — and today, Google marks the 30th anniversary of the math-inspired holiday with a special Doodle.
Pi, denoted by the Greek letter “π”, has been part of human knowledge for millennia, but it wasn’t until 1988 that physicist Larry Shaw organized what is now recognized as the first “Pi Day” celebration at the San Francisco Exploratorium science museum. Shaw chose March 14, or 3.14 — the first three digits of pi — as the holiday. Shaw died last year, but his brainchild is still celebrated by lovers of mathematics around the world.
Pi represents the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter. It’s an important part of the foundation of mathematics, most importantly geometry, where it is key to equations calculating the area of a circle, A = πr2, and the volume of a cylinder, V = πr2h.
Various ancient civilizations calculated approximations of pi, including the Egyptians, Babylonians, and there’s even a reference to the dimensions of a circle in the Bible, but the first calculation of pi as 3.14 is attributed to Greek mathematician Archimedes, who lived in the third century B.C.. It was also independently determined by Chinese mathematician Zu Chongzhi (429–501), who computed pi to six decimal places. Mathematicians adopted the symbol π for the expression in the 18th century: Welsh mathematics teacher William Jones is often credited with the first use of the symbol in 1706.
Pi is a mathematical constant, meaning it isn’t changed by the size of the numbers it’s used to equate, and it is irrational, meaning it has an infinite number of digits that never repeat. The rise of computing technology has led to an arms race of sorts to calculate ever more digits of pi: the current record was set last year by Christian physicist Peter Trueb, calculated pi to 22.4 trillion digits — 22,459,157,718,361, to be exact — outpacing the previous record set in 2013 by 9 million digits.
But adding new digits is little more than a pastime for mathematics fanatics: NASA’s Jet Propulsion lab only uses 15 digits to calculate interplanetary travel, while mathematician James Grime argues that just 39 digits of pi is enough to calculate the circumference of the known universe.
Pi Day was officially recognized by Congress in 2009, and it’s inspired quirky and pun-filled celebrations, including eating circular treats, from fruit pies to pizza, as well as dressing like Albert Einstein, whose birthday serendipitously falls on the math-imbued day. San Francisco’s Exploratorium also hosts an annual day of pi-inspired activities. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology releases its undergraduate admissions decisions on Pi Day, and starting in 2012, it began sending the verdicts at 6:28 pm, or “Tau time,” for the mathematical equation 2π. This year, NASA is inviting math whizzes to compete in its “Pi in the Sky” challenge to solve a series of interplanetary math problems.
Wednesday’s Doodle is based on a pi-inspired dish, salted caramel apple pie, courtesy of Cronut creator and pastry pioneer Dominique Ansel.
Liputan6.com, Jakarta - Google Doodle hari ini hadirkan tampilan yang sungguh menggugah selera di laman utama pecarian perusahaan, Google.
Diawali 30 tahun lalu pada 1988 oleh fisikawan Larry Shaw, Pi Day selalu identik dirayakan dengan sepotong kue pai yang terlihat sangat lezat.
Lalu, apa arti sebenarnya Pi Day atau Hari Pi, dan kenapa dirayakan pada hari ini? Pi Day merupakan hari perayaan untuk menghormati konstanta matematika, Pi--ditandai yang ditandai oleh huruf Yunani "π".
Dikutip dari laman Google Doodle , Rabu (14/3/2018), Angka tersebut mewakili rasio antara lingkar lingkaran (perimeter) dengan diameternya (jarak dari sisi ke sisi yang melewati pusat).
Tak hanya itu, konstanta Pi memiliki peranan penting dari bebagai bidang yang berhubungan dengan matematika.
Pi Day dirayakan tepat pada hari ini untuk menghormati tiga digit pertama dari konstanta tak terhingga tersebut, yaitu 3,14.
Jadi, 14 Maret ditulis sebagai 3,14 (Maret = 3 dan hari - 14). Maka dari itu, 14 Maret adalah Hari Pi!
