The Daily Teaser — 14-3-2014: π Day

Oh, that’s a good thing!

The last day of my course is this coming Monday.

So … ?   Today I’ve had the comparative leisure of having a lie-in.

OK, granted, I like to try and get up early: at least to give myself some form of structure to the day.

But even so, it’s nice to sleep in.

Along with that … is the fact I’ve a TV inspired earworm going through my head.  I’ve a documentary on, about the First World War, at the moment.

And The Unknown Soldier, by The Doors, going through my head.

Let’s get a move on, shall we?

AFTER I play it for you … 

~≈Ê≈~

Yesterday’s Teaser saw Debbi* putting in her answers: and scoring eight out of ten.

Let’s see how she — and you — do with today’s questions, shall we?

Here they are, along with the How To, License and video … 

Q1) According to Larry Shaw of the San Francisco Exploratorium, today is Pi Day: named in honour of the mathematical constant.   Pi itself, represents the ratio of a circle’s circumference to it’s what: diameter or radius … ?

Q2) What IS Pi: to five decimal places … ?

Q3) The letter used to represent pi — π — is taken from which alphabet … ?

A3) The Greek alphabet.

Q4) It’s that alphabet’s equivalent to which letter in our latin alphabet … ?

Q5) The number pi can be approximated by different fractions: the lowest of these is 22 divided by … what … ?

Q6) Pi is also described as what: rational or irrational … ?

Q7) Pi shares that status with the square root of which even number … ?

Q8) The capital letter pi — ∏ — is usually used to represent what, in economics: production, consumption or inflation … ?

Q9) If you made a hobby of memorizing the digits of pi, you’d be practicing what … ?

Q10) Finally … which German born physicist was born on Pi Day, 1879 … ?

Here’s yesterday’s questions and answers …

Q1) 13th March, 1925 saw the teaching of Evolution banned in which US state: Tennessee, Texas or Utah … ?

A1) Tennessee .

Q2) What was the name of the teacher eventually — and famously — prosecuted for violating this law: John T. Scopes, Jean B. Goode or Jonty Smith … ?

A2) John T. Scopes.

Q3) Was that state the 14th, 15th or 16th to join the USA … ?

A3) The 16th.

Q4) Moving on, slightly … the teacher’s trial was known as the what trial … ?

A4) Formally as The State of Tennessee vs John Thomas Scopes: informally as either the Scopes Trial, or the Scopes Monkey Trial.

Q5) The 1960 film — with Spencer Tracey — based on these events was called ‘Inherit the’ what … ?

A5) Wind.

Q6) Who popularized the theory of evolution, in his book, On the Origin  of Species … ?

A6) Charles Darwin.

Q7) More to the point, what did he call evolution … ?

A7) Natural selection.

Q8) What’s the name of the belief — usually followed by devout Christians — that says that the universe was designed … ?

A8) Intelligent Design.   (Which ignores the fact the human airway crosses the human digestive tract: which is VERY intelligent.).

Q9) Which boy-band released a 2012 album called Evolution … ?

A9) JLS.

Q10) In which year was the film, Evolution — with David Duchovny and Julianne Moore — released … ?

A10) 2001.

I’ll leave you with this claim …

“I recited Pi to 22,514 decimal points in five hours and nine minutes. I was able to do this because of weeks of study, aided by the unusual synaesthesic way my mind perceives numbers as complex multidimensional coloured and textured shapes.”

Daniel Tammet.

And with this tune … 

Have a good day.

*        That’s a thought, Debbi, Aunty Beeb’s putting out a lot of stuff about the First World War: probably worth keeping an eye peeled for, on BBC America …