Phi-Day

We celebrated Phi-Day on January 6 (1st month, 6th day). Kids calculated the exact value of phi using the quadratic formula, and then took on a couple of challenges to see how close they could get to phi. The first challenge was to tie a knot with a strip of paper to create a regular pentagon. Kids then measured a diagonal and a side and calculated their ratio. Mathematically, this gives you the exact value for phi. The second challenge was to figure out the number of ways to climb a flight of stairs given that you can only climb one or two steps at a time. The ratio between the answers to two flights of stairs with a one-step difference approaches phi as the number of stairs increases.

Click on the subpages below to see some pictures.