The Correct Answer or the Most Helpful One?

Explaining to a little kid what pi is.

Here's a penny. See this penny?

Now say that this penny is one penny-length across: about this long. What if we want to measure around the penny? Let's say I take a piece of string and cut it so that it's just long enough to wrap all the way around the penny. Now let's see how many pennies fit across this string when we straighten it out. 1, 2, 3 - a little more than 3 pennies, but less than 4. The number of penny-lengths that go around the penny is a special number between 3 and 4. We call it pi.

This is true for every circle, not just pennies. See this Frisbee?

Let's call the distance across the Frisbee one Frisbee-length. The distance around the Frisbee is going to be a little more than 3 Frisbee-lengths, but less than 4. Actually, it's exactly pi Frisbee-lengths.

See this face?


... Yeah.

So, children. Remember this. The way they teach you to count in preschool is WRONG. This is the right way to count: 1, 2, 3, pi, 4. Yeah.