Pi and Math

I love delicious food. I love ridiculous themes. I love math. So, Pi day, a holiday celebrated around the world by nerds and math teachers, holds a special place in my heart. I commented to a friend that we should have a Pi day party, and she said she was already throwing a party and we should incorporate Pi. How could I say no? What’s nerdier than a comic and pi party? The whole Pi Day thing was my idea, so I had to bake a pi(e)…

After a lot of calculating and cutting, I ended up with a pretty tastey pie that was also pi by mass along with pi by count... read on to for more details!

Start out with a normal pie crust...

Next, layer 3 apples (465 grams)

[For all of these steps, I coated all of the fruits with a cinnamon and sugar.  It was about a cup of sugar with four table spoons of cinnamon.]

Add in a second layer of crust

14 strawberries (302 grams)

One rasin (one gram)

[My camera was having technical difficulties, but, believe me, there is one raisin there]

Add five more apples (776 grams)

92 blueberries (116 grams)

Six more strawberries (75 grams)

Five pieces of rhubarb (191 grams)

Cook for about 45 minutes

3 (apples) [crust] 14 (strawberries) 1 (raisin) 5 (apples) 92 (blueberries) 6 (strawberries) 5 (pieces of rhubarb) or 3.14159265…

But wait, there’s more! Instead of talking about number of items, let’s talk mass! On the bottom we have 465 grams of apples. On the top we have 302 grams of strawberries, one gram of raisins, 776 grams of apples, 116 grams of blueberries, 75 grams of strawberries, and 191 grams of rhubarb.

Putting that another way, it’s 302 + 1 + 776 + 116 + 75 + 191 / 465 … or 1461 / 465 … also known as 3.142.