Daniel Tammet Likes Pi

Today is 3rd month and 14th day of the year. When math people write this date every year, too often they think of the first three digits of Pi, 3.14.

 
Daniel Tammet  is an interesting resource for today's teacher. He fits in with Pi Day because one day he recited 22,514 digits of Pi!  Daniel raised money for Epilepsy.  Besides math, Daniel also can learn languages in a matter of weeks as well!

When Daniel was young, he suffered from epilepsy. In Daniel's memoir, Born on a Blue Day,  he recounts how after nearly dying from a seizure he began to "see" colors when thinking about numbers. This is known as synesthesia and the famous physicist, Nikola Tesla is also known to "see" colors in thoughts.

Daniel's own drawing of a part of Pi.

The Boy with the Incredible Brain, start here, is 50 minute show about Daniel. Daniel shows scientists how he sees numbers by making them out of clay. These scientists are amazed when they show Daniel a corrupted version of the digits of Pi, he gets physically upset just watching. I was amazed to watch students in Japan use an imaginary abacus. Also, Daniel meets Kim Peek, the "real" Rain Man, and plays blackjack in Las Vegas.

In the book, Born on a Blue Day , Daniel describes his struggles with Aspergers syndrome and he writes about going on David Letterman and having to concentrate on making eye contact and smiling. Daniel tells David he looks like the number 117!  here.

Happy Three Point One Four Day!