This Friday, on the campus of Santa Fe Community College, provides an opportunity to celebrate math and all it can do for people.
That day is March 14, or 314, and that also makes it PI day 2025.
3, 1, and 4 are the first three digits of Pi, which is the mathematical constant representing the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter.
The Pi Day event at SFCC is open for registration to the general public and will feature a film screening, networking, and the kind of pie you eat.
The film screening, at 1 p.m. Friday, features a math documentary directed by Vicki Abeles that aims to addresses the biggest crises of our time through the lens of math and numeric literacy.
She says the film, titled Counted Out, is for anyone who wants to understand math as a determinant of social and economic power, as well as how it helps strengthen the mind.
”We're hoping that a general audience watches this film, and is inspired to reengage mathematically, and that doesn't mean going back to your seventh or eighth grade algebra class," said Abeles.
"What it means is feeling agentic in asking asking questions when things don't make sense, because that's so much of what math is. It's about critical thinking understanding risk and probabilistic thinking.”
Abeles says math is a factor in the people we date, the news we see, the influence of our votes, and the education that becomes available to us.
“ When you have people who are not getting the math, they need to graduate from high school to access college to access a job that allows you to support a family and to have the foundational knowledge to be able to fully participate in the conversations about the issues that are shaping all of our lives that becomes a civil rights issue.”
More information about the film, Counted Out, and the Pi day event at the Santa Fe Community College Planetarium, is in the Campus Weekly newsletter at sfcc.edu/media.
