Upon first meeting me you may or may not realize that I am a huge nerd. Some people can know me for quite a long time and for whatever reason they never catch on. However, I like being nerdy and I feel it is one of my best qualities. So please bare with me a few moments and let me indulge myself in nerdiness about Pi Day.
Why do we care about pi? Why is it a part of our culture enough that we’ve decided to honor a day associated with it? We don’t consciously think about it, but pi is inherent in our every day world, and it’s a big deal! The idea of an infinitely continuing number is such a big deal and such a radical idea when first introduced that there were assassination threats on the Pythagorean that discovered it! Before irrational numbers we thought about our world in “rational” numbers, or numbers that can be expressed as a ratio. We thought of things in basic units. If we could divide one length in half there must be an indivisible unit eventually, right? This is how the atom first got its name. Atom literally means indivisible, and before we knew about protons, neutrons, and electrons it was the most appropriate name for the tiny units of matter that compose our world. In trying to determine this indivisible unit via mathematics the idea of infinity and infinitely repeating numbers in nature came along and threw a wrench in things. It’s almost as if it is built into human nature to continue to search for an indivisible unit in our world. How do you think we got around to discovering the Higgs-Bosun? Yes, pi is in our everyday lives. Want to know how much pie filling to make? Well, you’re going to need to figure out the volume of your pie dish! A pie dish is basically a short cylinder and we can use pi to figure out how many cups of filling we will need for our pie. My pie dish is 9.5 inches across, this is its diameter. Half of the diameter is the radius and the r in our equation. My pie dish is also 1.75 inches deep which is our height and the h in our equation.
Volume Of A Pie Dish = π x r2 x h
Volume of a pie dish equals pi times the radius squared times the height.
Since I have a 9.5 inch diameter pie dish I divide that in half to get my radius which is 4.75 inches.
4.75 inches squared is 22.5625.
22.5625 times our height of 1.75 is 39.484375.
39.484375 times π (we’ll use 3.14) is 123.9809375 cubic inches.
1 US cup is equal to 14.4375 cubic inches.
We’ll just divide the volume of the dish in cubic inches by the volume of a cup in cubic inches to cancel out “cubic inches” and use cups.
123.9809375 / 14.4375 = 8.587424242…. Or a little more than 8 and a half cups of fluffy whipped perfection in the case of the Dark Chocolate French Silk Cabernet Pie we ate tonight to celebrate Pi Day and the Pie Quest Finale!
The lighting in the kitchen really doesn’t do it justice. I apologize, I’m still trying to figure out this food photography and blogging stuff. Next time I will have to post about photons and how yellowy light foils my photographs! Just kidding…
I couldn’t find my Baker’s chocolate in the cupboard and I was so sure I already had some that I didn’t buy any at the store. I finally gave up and used a bar of “Cabernet Matinee” Ghirardelli dark chocolate. I am VERY glad I couldn’t find the Baker’s chocolate. This pie now has a mouth-watering hint of Cabernet running through its fluffy decadent approximately 8.6 cups of filling.
For our pre-dessert pie dinner we had Cali Cheesesteak Bell Pepper Pies. I used baby red bell peppers, mushrooms, yellow onion, and some beef marinated in au jus. They were tenderly caressed with my spatula, and sauteed in ranch dressing before being mounded into red bell pepper halves on a bed of cheese; then they were gently tucked in with more cheese for a 10 minute power nap in the oven. Oh, the luxurious life of Cali Cheesesteak Bell Pepper Pies!
Of course we also are watching “The Life of Pi”, and so far I absolutely adore this movie.
We were also graced with a stunningly gorgeous sunset like a beacon of the awe inspired by pi… and pie!
Happy Pi Day! Also, Happy Birthday Mr. Einstein!
This will be one of my entries for “The Pie Day Pi Party” contest hosted by Crazy for Crust.
“Join the Pi Day Pie Party with Crazy for Crust and enter to win some fabulous prizes!”
Rachie Adventures 
Oh hunnie, I was never good at numbers. You lost me at pi, haha.
Those Cali Cheesesteak Bell Pepper Pies look amazing. My friend Jp wants to try a bell pepper quinoa recipe soon, so this post reminded me to remind her to get started on that this weekend ^_^
Oh, fun! I love quinoa! I hope you get to taste her creation! If you girls aren’t vegetarians/vegans you might want to try cooking the quinoa in chicken broth instead of water – I’ve always thought it gave it a really good flavor. 🙂 Oh, and thank you for the compliment on the bell peppers! 🙂
I normally cook mine on the stove top in vegetarian broth, but she does hers in a rice cooker with chicken broth 🙂 We normally follow the meatless Monday thing, just because we both need to eat healthier, but I’m no longer a strict vegan. Kinda hard to go through life limiting yourself on food when you love it as much as we do >_<
I wish there was a “like” button for comments on WordPress like there is for Facebook! I need to work on going back to making foods that love me back now that I’ve come off the “pie high”.