The 2020 NASA Pi Day Challenge Is Here!

["NASA/JPL Edu" <education@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Title: NASA-JPL Education

We've Got the Formula for a Stellar Pi Day

Our annual opportunity to indulge in a shared love of space exploration, mathematics and sweet treats has come around again! Pi Day is the March 14 holiday that celebrates the mathematical constant pi – the number that results from dividing any circle's circumference by its diameter. Besides providing an excuse to eat all varieties of pie, Pi Day gives us a chance to appreciate some of the ways NASA uses pi to explore the solar system and beyond. You can get students doing the math for themselves by taking part in the NASA Pi Day Challenge.

› Explore the 2020 Pi Day Challenge lesson!

This year's challenge from the Education Office at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory poses four puzzlers that require pi to compare the sizes of Mars landing areas; calculate the length of a year for one of the most distant objects in the solar system; measure the depth of the ocean from an airplane; and determine the diameter of a distant debris disk! Answers will be available Monday, March 16.

To read about the science behind the challenge and find more resources for bringing Pi Day into the classroom visit our Teachable Moments blog.

Explore More Pi Day Resources

Lessons: Pi Day (Grades 4-12) – Find everything you need to bring the NASA Pi Day Challenge into the classroom, including free posters and handouts available to download.

Slideshow: NASA Pi Day Challenge (Grades 4-12) – Students take on problems from the entire NASA Pi Day Challenge collection in one handy slideshow.

Pi Day: What’s Going ‘Round – Tell us what you’re up to this Pi Day and share your stories and photos with NASA. And join the conversation with @NASAJPL_Edu on Twitter using the hashtag #NASAPiDayChallenge

Feature: 18 Ways NASA Uses Pi - Whether it's sending spacecraft to other planets, driving rovers on Mars, finding out what planets are made of or how deep alien oceans are, pi takes us far at NASA. Find out how pi helps us explore space.

Blog: How Many Decimals of Pi Do We Really Need? - Though there are those who have memorized more than 70,000 digits of pi, JPL engineer Marc Rayman explains why you really only need a tiny fraction of that for even the highest-accuracy calculations at NASA.