Idaho Society of Professional Engineers

           PO Box 170239, Boise, ID 83717-0239  208-426-0636  Fax: 208-426-0639  E-Mail: ispe@idahospe.org

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Idaho Society of Professional Engineers
Friday Update – 03/16/07

UPCOMING EVENTS:

• March 22 & 23, 2007 – ISPE 2007 Annual Meeting – Oxford Suites, Boise

**All ISPE members are welcome to attend the General Membership Meeting only on Friday, March 23, from 11:30 am - 2:30 pm. There is no cost if you do not wish to have lunch.**

• May 11, 2007 – National MATHCOUNTS Competition – Convention Center, Fort Worth, Texas

• May 11, 2007 – ISPE Southwest Chapter Spring Fundraiser Golf Tournament - 4-Person Scramble - 1:00 PM - Purple Sage Golf Course

“The PE License: A Way for Female Engineers to Set Themselves Apart”

What: NSPE is helping to promote a dial-in and PowerPoint presentation by Lyndsey Alm, P.E., a senior environmental engineer, regarding the importance of licensure for female engineers and those interested in a career in engineering.

This presentation takes place during A Global Marathon For, By and About Women in Engineering (a 24-hour engagement of organizations and individuals around the globe via webcasts, Internet chats and teleconferences)

When: This particular presentation will take place Thursday, March 22 from 5:30 pm. to 6:00 p.m. (EDT)

Why: Do you know anyone looking for insights and information on engineering careers? Do they need advice on an engineering career strategy? Would they like the chance to interact with a successful young woman engineer? Then the Global Marathon is for them!

Supported by Lenovo and Verizon Business, the Marathon kicks off with a live webcast from the executive headquarters of leading PC-maker Lenovo and features Fran O’Sullivan, senior vice president of the Product Group and former astronaut Sally Ride, the first American woman in space, and now President and CEO of Sally Ride Science.

Instructions to participate in any of the sessions and discussions will be posted as the event gets closer. For a complete list of presenters, topics, and times visit:
http://www.eweek.org/site/News/Eweek/2007_marathon/schedule.shtml.
There is no fee to participate.

Whether you log in or call in just be there!

For more details, you can contact Stacy Ober at sober@nspe.org 


To celebrate 100 Years of Licensure, NSPE is sponsoring a contest! As part of a special June issue of PE magazine, we’d like our members to tell us what they think a day without PEs would be like. Top entries will be published in PE magazine, and all participants will be eligible to win an iPod, gift certificates, or free registration at the NSPE annual conference in Denver! The contest deadline is March 23. For more information, and to place your entry, visit http://www.nspe.org/contest_form.asp


MATHCOUNTS PROBLEM OF THE WEEK
Can you solve this MATHCOUNTS problem? The answer will appear in next week's edition of the Friday Update!
 

The Value of Pi
March 14 is often celebrated as pi day because the date can be expressed as 3.14, a numerical approximation for the value of π.  March 14, 2007 falls on a Wednesday.  At some time in history humans realized that circles appeared in many sizes and that the greater the distance across a circle the greater the distance around the circle.  There is some evidence that about 2000 BC, the Babylonians and the Egyptians knew that the ratio between the distance around a circle (the circumference) and the distance across a circle (the diameter) is a constant. The symbol “π” was first used by William Jones in 1706 to represent the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter.  The modern representation is C/D = π.

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Around 2000 BC the Babylonians approximated the value of π to be 3 1/8 and the Egyptians approximated the value of π to be 4(8/9)².  What is the positive difference between these two approximations for the value of π? Express your answer as a decimal to the nearest thousandth.

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Mary has decided to approximate the value of π by collecting some data.  The table below shows her measurements for the length of the circumference and diameter of 5 different circles.

What is the mean of the circumference to diameter ratios of these circles?  Express your answer as a decimal to the nearest thousandth.

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The circumference of a circle can be found using the formula C = πD.  The value for π can be approximated by inscribing and circumscribing a polygon with the same number of sides on a circle whose radius (R) is 1 unit.  The circumference of the circle is greater than the perimeter of the inscribed polygon and less than the perimeter of the circumscribed polygon: Perimeter_{ins poly} ≤ 2πR ≤ Perimeter_{cir poly} 

Using a circle with radius 1 gives: P/2_{ins poly}  ≤ π ≤ P/2_{cir poly}

Let 2x represent the perimeter of a regular hexagon inscribed in a circle with radius 1 and let 2y represent the perimeter of a regular hexagon circumscribed about the same circle so that 2x ≤ π ≤ 2y.  What is the mean of x and y?  Express your answer as a decimal to the nearest hundredth.

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By what percent does the hexagon method overestimate the accepted approximation of 3.14 for the value of π?  Express your answer to the nearest tenth.

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Click on http://pi.ytmnd.com/ for a pi surprise.

Answer to last week’s MATHCOUNTS problem:
The answer to last week’s problem is not yet available. It will be published in a future edition of the Friday Update.

If you want to see last week's problem again, click

http://www.mathcounts.org/webarticles/anmviewer.asp?a=986&z=110



Idaho Society of Professional Engineers
PO Box 170239
Boise, ID 83717-0239
208-426-0636
Fax: 208-426-0639
E-Mail: ispe@idahospe.org
Web Site: www.Idahospe.org 

 

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Last modified: 03/27/15