Black River Technical College (BRTC) celebrated Pi day across both of its locations, Paragould and Pocahontas, on March 14.
Faculty members at both locations passed out bottles of water, free individual pies, Pi/math pencils, Pi day stickers and fun facts about Pi day.
Paragould passed out 123 pies, and 30 bottles of water. Pocahontas distributed 180 pies and 80 bottles of water, with a grand total of 203 pies and 110 bottles of water.
Fun Facts included were that March 14 was Einstein’s birthday, Pi is the area of a circle, and 31 trillion digits of Pi have been calculated.
Student activities included a “Pi day chain” and “Rolling for Pi.” Pi day chains were made by students using loops of construction paper, each a different color for each of the 10 digits. Each colored chain link represented a decimal place or a digit.
Paragould’s Pi day chain was 106 chain links/digits and 21 feet long by the end of Pi day, and Pocahontas’s Pi day chain was 82 chain links/digits and 16.5 feet long.
Rolling for Pi was an activity where students roll dice to see who can roll the first 10 digits of Pi first, in order, the fastest. The student with the fastest time at the BRTC Pocahontas location was Hannah Stalnaker. The student with the fastest time at the BRTC Paragould location was Brittany Everett. Both students won a $25 gift card.
Participants from both locations who completed the Pi day survey were also entered into a drawing for a $50 gift card. BRTC student Natalie Anderson was the winner of the survey drawing.