A Stunningly Simple Way To Explain Pi

The Digital Media Part. Among the most underappreciated gifts of digital media is animation.

Animation sounds pretty pedestrian until you imagine a world without it. At the opposite end of the spectrum of cartoons, and the more robust, Pixar-born versions of animation that include “motion pictures” (a term we also take for granted), are gif animations.

GIF animations (we pronounce it “jiff”, FWIW) are comprised of a short series of images that produce simple animation. They’re useful for a variety of applications, especially where an entire video with sound isn’t necessary. Their small size compared to audio and video makes for quick loading, simpler embedding, and thus broad application.

“These animated GIFs consist of brief loops of bodies in motion, primarily excerpted from recognizable pop culture moments, and are used to express common ideas and emotions. Understood as gestures, they can communicate more nuance and concision than their verbal translations. While many reaction GIFs are created, deployed, and rarely seen again, some have entered a common lexicon after being regularly reposted in online communities.”

The Math Part

So there’s that–which brings us to the above animation shared by reddit user merelyhere that brilliantly illustrates the significance of “pi.” Pi is the often-referenced mathematical concept that students may be able to quote to ten digits or even use to solve formulas, but otherwise simply don’t get. 

The Wikipedia definition for pi  is the “number π is a mathematical constant, the ratio of a circle‘s circumference to its diameter, approximately equal to 3.14159. It has been represented by the Greek letter “π” since the mid-18th century though it is also sometimes spelled out as “pi” (/paɪ/).”

And now to compliment the words, you have a simple looping moving image to really aggravate students that still, in lieu of your digital media acumen, still won’t get it.

This article was first published here ...