During each period of the day, students file into Hughes Hall, the lecture hall, or the Terry Center, anticipating what kind of presentation they will see next. With the variety of Pi Day presentations, each with their own distinct topic and personality, students never know what to expect. On March 6th, 2015, students and faculty were given the opportunity to learn how several different math and science topics could be applied to the real-world.
Physics teacher Mr. Max von Schlehenried conducted a presentation centered around how many marbles can be placed in a cup of water without sinking, emphasizing how math can be used to make models and future predictions. He stated, “Math is sometimes such a dry subject that seems so detached from everyday life, when in actuality it is one of the most incredible and poetic languages to describe our experiences.” Mr. Von enjoys Pi Day in that “it allows the community to come together to celebrate the power of mathematics, the language that ties people of different cultures together.”
Enrique Berrios ’15 hosted a presentation regarding how calculus can be applied to population change. Berrios stated, “I hope people were interested and understood what I was talking about. Human Geography is incredibly interesting, and I hope I encouraged more juniors to take it next year.” Berrios also enjoyed the other student presentations, such as that of Alonso Espinosa-Dominguez ’16 concerning dimensions, as well as the presentation led by the Jesuit Engineering Society. With all of these presentations, Berrios thought that this year’s Pi Day was “more exciting” than last year’s.
With Pi Day’s presentations focusing on teaching students real-world applications to many math topics, students began to understand and appreciate the seemingly irrelevant topics they are taught in their math and science classes. Ethan Tsao ’16 recounted, “Pi Day was enlightening, especially since math and physics is a field I plan on pursuing.” Similarly, the Jesuit Engineering Society presentation stuck out to Ethan Brownlee ’16, who said, “It gave me great insight into how physics is used for projects that the Engineering Society undertakes.” Some students, such as Patrick Cua ’16, found the presentation on gambling interesting, as it “was exciting to learn how math could apply to seemingly unrelated things such as gambling in Vegas.”
This year’s Pi Day showed how this Jesuit tradition continues to move ahead with unending vigor, never failing to enlighten students on the importance of math and science in today’s world. Hopefully, Pi Day continues to be as influential in Jesuit as it has been for many years.
