On March 14th (3/14), our very own Foothill Math Club hosted a very special event for a very special number. Foothillers gathered around a brave student who was strapped to a chair, garbed in a makeshift garbage bag straight jacket, and receiving countless whipped cream pies to the face. The date itself holds significance, being the first 3 digits of Pi.
We asked Foothill student JP (Jean-Pierre) Mouloudj– the one who took the pies to the dome– a few questions to better understand why on Earth he was so excited to receive smack after smack in the face with each throw. His answers are as follows.
CJ: What’s so cool about Pi? The number, not the food.
JP: I could give you some facts I pulled up on the internet about why Pi is so cool, but I think the fact that it is an endless stream of numbers makes it interesting. Endless is never-ending, meaning eventually, every number you’ve seen is somewhere in there, and (if you convert each letter to a number) every essay is somewhere in Pi. I think that’s pretty cool!
CJ: The Math Club is obviously cooler than I thought it would be, what do you guys do when you’re not having the public throw food items at you?
JP: (Laughter) We wanted to do something pie-related for Pi Day, so bringing out pies was just one idea. In Math Club, we usually do problems from the past AMATYC (The American Mathematical Association of Two-Year Colleges) tests, which are traditionally head-scratchers. Still, we spend time going through problems together. I don’t know if this is true, but I’ve heard that being one of the top scores looks good on applications… We also usually bring food and talk about other stuff, so it’s a good time.
CJ: Why should people join your club?
JP: People should join the Math Club if they want to share their love for math and if they are looking for a place to chill. We’d be happy to have you guys!
CJ: Who’s the one person you’d want to pie in the face the most, and why? It can be a student, faculty member, celebrity, politician, etc.
JP: I can’t decide on one person, but can I give two? Probably one of our co-presidents, Ismael or Atharv. I brought extra trash bags last Thursday for them to get pied, but they chickened out. (Laughter)
CJ: What was your favorite part of the whole experience?
JP: My favorite part was, contrary to popular belief, not getting pied! I was so happy to see everyone in front of the library and meet new faces. The small conversations were fun; I just wish I wasn’t fasting (for Ramadan) so that I could’ve eaten some of the pie.
CJ: Whose idea was the event, and who helped you put this whole thing together?
JP: I think the event planning was just a general idea we’ve had for Pi Day, but it might have been Ismael’s idea initially. Eventually, I added the pieing part because I wanted to do something that would grab more attention. But for next year we will prepare better, and I will definitely not get pied next time (Laughter). We couldn’t have done this without our officers Ismael, Arthav, Anthony, and some club members Isaac and Jahanzeb’s help. And a big thank you to Professor Lam for being our advisor, helping with this event and, in general, with the math club.
We thank Jean-Pierre for his dedication to sharing the infinitely non-repeating π— the ratio of the circumference of any circle to the diameter of that circle. The Math Club will be hosting meetings and events throughout the next quarter. Those interested are encouraged to join the Math Club’s Discord Server, Math Club @ Foothill, for a variety of math-related content. This includes memes, homework assistance, challenging problems, competition updates, and more!
