TCC celebrates Pi Day in a yummy way

Peach, cherry, apple, chocolate cherry, pumpkin and lemon meringue were just a few of the inspirations cooked up to honor Pi, a name given to the ratio of the circumference of a circle to the diameter. The value of pi is approximately equal to 3.14159265, but it is an irrational number, and its decimal representation never ends or repeats.

In Portsmouth three students received awards for pi posters with Roger Carpenter receiving best in show.

“In the layout I tried to integrate Albert Einstein and pi together,” said Carpenter, enrolled in the apprenticeship program.

Timothy Mays, who won for best in math, calculated pi to 1,175 decimal places. Shelby Ferguson won for her artistic expression of pi.

Students also lined up in order in the quad, each holding a number to signify the next value of pi.

In Norfolk, awards were given to math tutor Deana Vranas for best looking pie (chocolate cherry), Professor Marilyn Peacock for best tasting pie (apple) and Professor Julia Arnold for best use of the theme (cherry).

Students at the Virginia Beach Campus celebrated the day with pizza pies. Hundreds of students gathered in the student lounge to enjoy a slice, and participate in math and physics challenges. Led by faculty members Charlotte Newsom and John Ippolito, students computed an approximation of pi by measuring the circumference and diameter of cans and other circular objects, and then computing the ratios.