How To Bake Pi, Mathematically (And Deliciously)

Short Wave

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🗓️ 14 March 2023

⏱️ 13 minutes

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Summary

This March 14, Short Wave is celebrating pi ... and pie! We do that with the help of mathematician Eugenia Cheng, Scientist In Residence at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and author of the book How to Bake Pi. We start with a recipe for clotted cream and end, deliciously, at how math is so much more expansive than grade school tests.

Click through to our episode page for the recipes mentioned in this episode.

Plus, Eugenia's been on Short Wave before! To hear more, check out our episode, A Mathematician's Manifesto For Rethinking Gender.

Curious about other math magic? Email us at shortwave@npr.org.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to Shortwave.
0:03.6	From NPR.
0:05.2	Today is March 14th, known to many as just another day in March.
0:10.8	But it's known to math lovers as Pi Day.
0:14.1	See, 3.14 is also the beginning of Pi.
0:18.0	That mathematical constant representing the ratio of a circle's circumference to its
0:22.4	diameter, that weird looking symbol that looks like a table, that inspires math frivolity
0:27.6	in schools around the US every March 14th.
0:31.2	Like I don't know about you, but Pi Day was beloved in my high school.
0:35.0	There were Pi-baking contests, Pi-digit memorization contests, Pi Day t-shirts.
0:41.0	I made one one year with the Pi symbol inside the superman symbol.
0:44.4	It was pretty cool.
0:45.9	Dr. Eugenia Chang is also a fan.
0:49.0	Though originally from the UK where the date is written 14 slash 3, she's since warmed
0:54.7	up to the notion of Pi Day.
0:57.0	I think that we should take any opportunity we can to portray math in a way that is fun
1:02.4	to people.
1:03.6	Just associating math with fun instead of with trauma is a good start.
1:09.9	Eugenia is a scientist in residence at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
1:15.1	She teaches art students math and has authored numerous books about math in our world, including
1:20.7	a book called How to Bake Pi.
1:23.3	Spelled PI, like the mathematical constant.
	...

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