Through a hands on workshop delivered by MyBnk Year 9 students have been learning about the role of banks, different types of bank account and how interest works on borrowing and saving. Students were also given the opportunity to ask questions, which ranged from the role of non fungible tokens (NFTs) to the effect of fuel prices on household budgets.

Pi, the ancient letter, important ratio to the key to interplanetary civilisation

Every year we are reminded of the quirky little number of Pi as the dates of the calendar clock to the first three digits of this exact number. And while it is not super pi day-when the year ends in 15, the next two digits of Pi - it’s still a time when mathematicians from all round the world turn to appreciate this key part of the extensive web of maths as a subject. But while most people are familiar with Pi (there are even some who dread it) few people really understand just how large of a role it plays in our world.

Monday 14th of March is Pi Day, as in America the date would be written as 3/14 and 3.14 is the first 3 digits of Pi. To celebrate, today saw the return of The Romsey ‘Great Mathematical Pi Bake Off’.

We had 26 sensational entries, which were judged on taste, appearance and mathematical content. Competition was tough, and all participants have been awarded a Romsey Reward in recognition of their superb efforts. A special congratulations goes to the following, for their outstanding creations (pictured):

1st place - Hassan K (Year 9)

2nd place - Annie M and Abi S (Year 11)

3rd place - Maggie N (Year 8)

Pi is the ratio of a circle’s circumference (The distance around the edge of the circle) divided by its diameter (The distance across the centre) and this equals very closely to 3.14159265… We can never truly know the exact value of Pi, as it goes on infinitely, but mathematicians have managed to get a very close approximation. In fact, only 39 digits are necessary for calculating the circumference of a circle surrounding the known universe to the accuracy of the radius of a hydrogen atom. But how exactly was Pi whittled down to its first one million digits or so? There is no pattern to the digits of Pi and you can’t exactly measure it with a piece of string? Early civilisations like the Babylonians, Greeks and Egyptians got close. The Babylonians and Greek mathematicians like Archimedes estimated pi to be around 3 and the Egyptians managed to get it to 3 and 1/7. But fast forward a few thousand years to 1950 where, with the invention of the computer, the calculations necessary for working out a digit of pi could be done in nanoseconds (in fact it’s faster than 500,000 digits a second now). And while it’s a bit unnecessary, it shows just how far some mathematicians will go to solve unsolved problems.

Currently Pi is being used in many areas around the world:

· Astrophysics – determining the volume of stars and planets.

· Engineering – design of Vehicles, Efficient use of materials and building designs.

· GPS/satellite TV – Orbit of satellites.

And so while many people may spend today tucking into a steaming dish of steak and onion pie, it’s worth sparing a thought to this little Greek letter as without its discovery we may be living in a very different world indeed. A world full of wonky circles that.

Romsey School Maths department have recently sent boxes of old text books to Books2Africa, they were lucky enough to be able to buy new key stage 3 text books for the start of the academic year so have taken the opportunity to pass on older books to this worthwhile charity.