This year, Purim falls out on March 14, otherwise known as Pi Day. Pi is the name of a special number related to circles and wave patterns. March 14 is called Pi Day because that date’s U.S. abbreviation (3/14) contains the first three digits of Pi: 3.14. So what do Pi and Purim have to do with each other? Here’s one way:

Hamantaschen are made by folding a circular piece of rolled-out dough. First, some filling is put in the center of each piece. Then the dough is folded from three different directions to make a pocket for the filling. The area of the space where the filling goes is approximately half the area of the entire circular piece.

Here’s where Pi comes in. We can calculate the area of a circle using Pi and the circle’s radius. The radius is equal to one half the diameter. A diameter is the distance from one side of the circle to the other. The area of a circle is equal to Pi x radius x radius.

Say you are making a huge apricot hamantaschen using a 6-inch diameter circular piece of dough. How much space does the apricot filling take?

Solution: The piece of dough has a diameter of 6 inches, so its radius is half of that: 3 inches. That makes the area of the dough 3.14 x 3 x 3=28.26 square inches. The amount of space needed for the filling is half the area of the piece. This is 14.13 square inches. Purim Sameach and Shabbat Shalom!

Ari Blinder is a math educator living in Highland Park. He is the owner of Math for the Masses, an innovative tutoring and consulting company. Please visit www.math4masses.com for fun activities and helpful worksheets. Ari can be reached at [email protected]. Never think you are “not a math person.” You are very much one already, but no one has shown you how.