Easy As Pi
March 14, 2012 Happy Pi Day, guys!
Yep, 3/14 is the day a bunch of nutty math nerds decided to celebrate the mathematical constant that is the ratio of any Euclidean circle's circumference to its diameter...
...mostly by doing stuff like this:
;)
Mmmm. Pi pie.
And yes, the baker DID put the 5 on backwards so it looks like a 2. I'm sure s/he was just testing you, though.
What's that? You didn't IMMEDIATELY catch that?! Well, that just means you need to learn pi out to seven decimals, then!
And what better way to do so than with Cake Wrecks visual aids?
LET'S GO!!
;)
Three...
;)
Point...
(Thank you, uh thankyouverramuch.)
;)
One...
(I know, I know; you thought that was number two, but no.)
[rim shot!]
;)
Four...
(Yes, I know it's upside down. The question is, why didn't the baker?)
;)
One...
[singing] "I'M lookin' at the NUMBER innn the mirra'! OW! I'M askin' it to MAKE a cha-hange!! HOOO YA! Sha-MOW! Uh-HUH!"
Ahem.
Where were we?
Let's see... 3.141...what's next?
Oh, right:
;)
Five nine two...
No lie, you guys: I'm looking through your submissions for a number five, and I find this random cake someone found in a display case with the number 592 on it, and I check my pi cheat sheet, and the next three digits of pi actually ARE 592!! I mean, WHAT ARE THE ODDS? AND WHY AM I SO EXCITED ABOUT THIS?!
Don't answer that.
We all know why.
Ok, so. 3.141592...
;)
Six!
(Yes, really. It's a six.)
So there you have it: you've learned pi to seven places with Cake Wrecks! Great job! Pocket protectors for everyone!
And for those of you whose day just won't be complete until you see some pie wrecks, a gift from John:
;)
You're welcome.
Thanks to wreckporters Rachel W., Nasina G., Grahm, Maggie M., Gin D., Caroline C., Rebecca M., and Mike - and also to John for the most painful pun in the history of crockery. I knew I married that boy for a reason.
Reader Comments (122)
pi wrecks win
:)
Awesome!!! I never felt quite nerdy enough to learn Pi to the seventh digit, but I will so remember them now!! :) So crazy how you found a cake with 529. Or was that 592.. O_o Better go read this post one more time.
Ahh! Love the pie wrecks on pi day! Maybe its cause I'm a native of Corning, NY, but that made my day!
I feel so stupid it took me as long as it did to get "Pi Wrecks". Oy.
Oh my gosh! I laughed the whole way through, then had to stop at the "pie wrecks". I am ashamed to say it took me a looooooooooooooong while to get it. Then, of course, the laughter came back, even louder.
AWESOME post!!
pie wrecks. I laugh. I think about it. I laugh even harder... Well done, John, hub of Jen. Day. Made.
It took me more than a quick moment to get the final photo, too. Sigh. I need to sharpen my pun skills, methinks.
Loved today's post, but I enjoyed it with a sliced of cake from my local grocery store with a shamrock that resembles a piece of broccoli more than a proper shamrock rather than a slice of pie.
Amy, I also noticed the Greek spelling of Sophia. It's sad to see someone pipe so well in two different alphabets on a cake (CCC, patooie!) that can't quite be a properly shaped 3...
An upside-down 5 looks a lot like a 2 and an upside-down 2 looks a lot like a 5. I know. I see both all the time.
Anybody else count the candles on the number 4 cake?
Today is my little math geek's birthday. How perfect is that? He's 13. Sadly he's sick today but your post put a smile on his face. (Oh and I say little because he's still a few inches shorter than me.)
I really hope that second cake was supposed to be an Idaho cake. If so, I can only imagine how amazing that party was.
just to really blow your mind... 3.14 backwards is PIE
Looks like a penis made out of poo.
Surely if we were learning pi to seven decimal places it would be 3.1415927 as the eighth decimal is a 5 and would therefore be rounded up?
And now I'll just go and remove my pedant hat....
For the third wreck, no, I was NOT thinking "number 2".
AH! PIE WRECKS!! You da man, John.
One of my favorite posts so far! I LOVE this site. Thanks for the giggles!
@catplumtree: can you please explain these mnemonics? I am scratching my head so much that my hair's falling out. I've been looking at my cell phone and trying to do A=1, B=2, C=3 etc. but cannot see the link to 3.1415926 etc. Please help me!
Pie wrecks - HA! I think I just woke my mother from her nap, I laughed so hard. :D
I actually made a pi pie myself several years ago - observe...
For a better approximation of pi to seven places, change that six to a seven. 3.141592652... is closer to 3.1415927 than to 3.1415926.
Pi wrecks XD XD the pi pie was a cute concept, the rest of them D:
Pie-wrecks/Pyrex. Hahah...i got it. It took me a minute but I finally got it.
LOVE IT! I am only glad that I happend to read the post when no one was near to hear me laugh so hard that I snorted at the pi wercks.
Happy Pi Day to all!
CRANBERRY Pie Wrecks!
I have been told today is also "National Steak and BJ day". Go ahead, google it.
What is Mole Day, June 2 or 22?
It was recently pointed out - write 3.14, then hold it up to a mirror..
3.14 becomes PIE.
It's not just geek punnage!!! It is truth - Pi is PIE!
Honestly, I don't know if it's just me, but I would have thought that 22/7 would have been a better pi day date....
That top pie pi, looks like an open wound. Ick.
john in kingston- it is the number of letters in the words
Maybe the 3.141 is under the sticker of the "592" cake?
Didn't we have the pie wrecks/pyrex joke last pie day? I could swear I saw the picture of John holding the maroon pyrex last year. I remember because I had no clue what the joke was until I went to the comments. But ask me what I had for dinner yesterday, and I will have no clue.
I admit my nerdiness. I did notice that the "2" should have been a 5 lol XD
And if you need another reason to celebrate, today is also Albert Einstein's birthday.
Personally, I memorized pi to 35 places by using the song "Memory" from Cats. "Memory . . . three point one four one five nine . . . " And just in case you didn't know, that would be:
3. 14159 26535 89793 23846 26433 83279 50288
July 2nd (22/7) is a closer approximation, @Trinimum, but that day is celebrated mainly by European geeks.
Finding all the reversed numerals on the Pi pie would be a good admission test for DOC. Those who pass are said to be pirated. Ahem. (Hyphenate it.)
Happy Birthday, Sophia.
#4 Er...uh...
#5 The rare deleted scene from Cars where Lightning McQueen gets stuck in a cow pasture. On a 4th birthday celebrated by the traditional lighting of 11 (12, counting the '4') candles.
#6 Come on, people! Eryanna is one! She'll never notice! (Sorry.)
#7 Karl was able to find meaning in his job, once he started numbering the cakes. Ultimately, it was noticed that the numbers were descending, leading to considerable speculation regarding what might happen after cake #1.
Pyrex! (So glad there isn't an EPCOT about that.)
spotted the backwards 5 in a flash, but took several seconds to get the pie-wrecks pun - I don't know what that says about me...
I love the Pie Wrecks/Pyrex pun! It should be a Pi Day tradition! After a day in the trenches, I needed that laugh. Life would not be the same without CakeWrecks.
Signed,
The guy from Pittsburgh with the nickname you liked -- Spin
I live next door to a Marie Calendar's and it's been one of those days. Pie for dinner it is!
Thanks for the laughs and the great puns. Never fails to cheer me up!
pyrex never gets old. I'm glad we also got an actual Pi wreck (sequence) this year though too :)
the first one is bleeding the pi sign. unusual day just getting weirder. in math class today we spent the last 20 min talking about pi. Doesn't this day make you want to eat pie for no explainable reason?
@ Janus, the idea of singing pi to "Memory" has had me smiling for the past ten minutes! I think I'm going to try to follow suit.
Also, I love that this is a place where we can discuss how best to round pi! (The next obvious pun is about squaring pi . . .)
The Words of the Day this week: kangaroo court, K (as in potassium), kakemono, and katzenjammer.
That "point" cake looks like New Hampshire. Why anyone would want a cake in the shape of New Hampshire, though, I'm not sure.
Pi cheer:
Sine! Cosine! Cosine! Sine! 3.14159!
Because nothing's cheerier than pi(e)
Someone with a working oven please bake 'a cake in a crust in a purple Py wrex' with a HAND on it next year please please please. You can sing that, too if you're deranged enough - "A cake in a crust in a purple py wrecks, dee doodle-y doodle-y do"
See, I told ya pie is a kind of cake. This proves it!
Pie wrecks!!! LOL LOL took me a second!!!
pi = 3.141592654!!! Happy pi day!
thanks Katie for explaining how the mnemonics worked. I was scratching my head.
I believe the pi wrecks joke should be an annual event. I'd forgotten it and laughed again!
The 592 cake will haunt me until someone comes up with a good explanation for it. Who cares what the truth is- we need something clever!!
I thought the pie wrecks pun was funny! But then again, I listen to third graders tell me knock-knock jokes from a book I've had on my classroom shelf for the past 18 years. ("No, child, I've never heard that one before.")
As long as I'm on the subject of third graders can I add my pitooie to CCC? Especially ones with black icing like that "4"th cake? The birthday child stains his hands black handing them out and then the entire class has zombie teeth for the rest of the afternoon. I'm also confused why this cake has a candle showing this is the 4th birthday celebration, yet it has an additional 11 candles. Huh?
I showed the "one" cupcake to my husband with no warning and he actually jumped back from the computer and said, "What are you LOOKING at??" with a startled, and then accusing, look. 'Cause it certainly does NOT look like a one. ;)
Ok, this post is genius. I read it this morning, and scared the cats by laughing out loud. (I don't know why they were frightened; they should know just by the fact that I have three of 'em that there's something wrong with me.)
I then had to share with my husband when he got home. But he's a dentist - he's used to seeing things in mirrors. So much so that he didn't notice that the "5" on the pie or the "1" cake were actually backwards!