{"id":10449,"date":"2025-07-01T09:59:51","date_gmt":"2025-07-01T08:59:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mathsweekengland.co.uk\/?p=10449"},"modified":"2026-04-25T14:56:30","modified_gmt":"2026-04-25T13:56:30","slug":"mwe-world-record-attempt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mathsweekengland.co.uk\/?p=10449","title":{"rendered":"MWE World Record Attempt!"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t<div data-elementor-type=\"wp-post\" data-elementor-id=\"10449\" class=\"elementor elementor-10449\" data-elementor-post-type=\"post\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-8de1c8d e-flex e-con-boxed e-con e-parent\" data-id=\"8de1c8d\" data-element_type=\"container\" data-settings=\"{&quot;content_width&quot;:&quot;boxed&quot;}\" data-core-v316-plus=\"true\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"e-con-inner\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-64b1abc elementor-widget elementor-widget-heading\" data-id=\"64b1abc\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"heading.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t<h2 class=\"elementor-heading-title elementor-size-default\">MWE World Record Attempt - Buffon's Needle<\/h2>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-bf1fb84 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"bf1fb84\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p>Join schools from right across the country as we attempt to find an approximation for Pi \u2013 by dropping things!<\/p><p>In 1777, Frenchman Louis Leclerc, also known as the Count of Buffon, created an experiment that would produce an approximate value for Pi. Buffon worked out that by randomly dropping needles onto a page with parallel lines drawn on, the probability that a needle would cross one of the lines was related to pi.<\/p><p>The Buffon&#8217;s Needle experiment uses a large sheet of paper (we recommend A3) and a few sticks <span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\">(<\/span><a style=\"font-size: 1rem; background-color: #fdf6eb;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.earlyyearsresources.co.uk\/1000-natural-wooden-craft-matchsticks\/?sku=MM54N&amp;msclkid=e5275342cbff11fc66d33bba620edd49&amp;utm_source=bing&amp;utm_medium=cpc&amp;utm_campaign=PMax_Arts%20%26%20Crafts%20(Top-Selling%20Categories)&amp;utm_term=2335019100865614&amp;utm_content=Arts%20%26%20Crafts%20-%20All\">these ones<\/a><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\">\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\">are ideal). Make sure that your sticks are all the same length.<\/span><\/p><p>Draw parallel lines down your paper. The gap between the lines is important &#8211; it must be twice the length of the sticks. So with 4.3cm sticks, the gap between the lines should be 8.6cm.<br \/><br \/>Drop the sticks onto the paper, and record:<br \/><strong>a<\/strong> how many sticks are on the paper, and <br \/><strong>b<\/strong> how many of them are touching or crossing a line.<br \/><br \/>Dividing <strong>a<\/strong> by <strong>b<\/strong> will give us an approximation to pi.\u00a0<\/p><p><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\">There&#8217;s a full <\/span><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\">demonstration in the video below.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\">Once you&#8217;ve got your results, submit them using this <\/span><a style=\"background-color: #fdf6eb; font-size: 1rem;\" href=\"https:\/\/forms.gle\/FaYvVqFksg7Kf1gZ8\">Google form<\/a><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\">. You can submit results individually, or add up the numbers for your class or school and send them all at once. The bigger the sample size, the closer to Pi the result should be, so we&#8217;ll total up all the results and see how close we can get.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\">Watch this space for the results!<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-b14b623 elementor-widget elementor-widget-video\" data-id=\"b14b623\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-settings=\"{&quot;video_type&quot;:&quot;vimeo&quot;}\" data-widget_type=\"video.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-wrapper elementor-open-inline\">\n\t\t\t<iframe class=\"elementor-video-iframe\" allowfullscreen allow=\"clipboard-write\" title=\"vimeo Video Player\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/1094696390?color&amp;autopause=0&amp;loop=0&amp;muted=0&amp;title=1&amp;portrait=1&amp;byline=1#t=\"><\/iframe>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Join schools from right across the country as we attempt to find an approximation for Pi \u2013 by dropping things!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":10454,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_cbd_carousel_blocks":"[]","footnotes":""},"categories":[75,52,88],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10449","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-75","category-mwe-news","category-mwe-news-2025"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>MWE World Record Attempt! 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