Friday, April 01, 2011

Bret Loves Pi

On April 1st, the bookstore on 3rd Avenue - "Untitled" - posted an unusual challenge on their Facebook page:

"Today and today only, we at "Untitled" will be giving away a $100 gift certificate to any customer today who can come in and recite the correct sequence of pi to the 100th decimal point.  Come on down and have some pi!"

Of course, it was meant to be an April Fool's joke. Who in their right mind could memorize 100 digits of pi before the day was over?.

Well, apparently my son Bret Jr. isn't of his right mind.

Bret's teacher had challenged him to memorize 50 digits of pi in March. He spent two weeks doing it, but eventually he memorized the 50 digits - by far the most of anyone in his class! But that was as far as he thought he could go.

Then Alyssa noticed the joke/challenge on Facebook on April Fool's Day - and pushed her brother to see if he could memorize the rest.

So he spent about 4 hours working on it, and we went to the store about 15 minutes before it closed.

And much to the incredible surprise of the bookstore owner, my son recited all 100 digits of pi.

He was so impressed that he gave Bret the $100 gift certificate even thought it was supposed to be a joke:



Congratulations Bret!