Don't drop the ball—use a unique resource to teach your class even more about pi! Given a situation about balls bouncing off each other, viewers see how many bounces it takes for the larger ball to move in the other direction. This engaging video in the Numberphile "Pi" series describes how pi relates to this situation.

Concepts

pi, energy conservation, conservation of momentum, velocity

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Additional Tags

math

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Instructional Ideas

• Team up with a physics teacher for the lesson

Classroom Considerations

• Pupils should be familiar with cosine
• It is also helpful if learners are aware of the conservation of energy and momentum

• This video is hosted on YouTube

Pros

• Thorough explanations make the concept clear
• Using actual balls to illustrate the problem makes it easier to grasp

Cons

• Video glosses over complex calculations