She sang for her pi — and threw it, too.
A student whose jingle helped her memorize more than 125 digits of the infinitely long number that begins with “3.14” was allowed to smear a real pie in the face of her math teacher during a competition that was part of the March 14 Pi Day festival at Bedford-Stuyvesant Collegiate school on Gates Avenue. Even she was surprised by the feat.
“It is exciting to know that I was able to memorize a larger amount of pi,” said 14-year-old Yolanda Dunbar. “I am impressed with myself.”
As a reward, Dunbar got to throw a pie — the edible kind — in the face of her math teacher. The second- through fourth-place winners were awarded the opportunity to challenge the teacher of their choice to a pie-eating contest.
Dunbar said she learned half the digits of pi by listening to a song she found on Youtube and half by rote memorization.
This is the second year Dunbar won. Back in the sixth grade, she beat out her classmates and creamed then-math-teacher Caitlin Webster, who says the annual party is an excuse to inject some fun into the sometimes-dry subject.
“We celebrate Pi Day to create some joy and excitement around math,” said Webster. “It is something that is fun and not strictly challenging.”
The school hosts a handful of other wacky math events. For example, they celebrate a Fun Facts Friday, where teachers dressed as ninjas randomly storm classrooms and students have to correctly multiply to help free their space-traveling tiger mascot, Cosmo, whom the ninjas have supposedly kidnapped.
