About This Lesson
The activity is based on an experiment called Buffon’s needle. In the 18th century, a mathematician determined that you can approximate pi by dropping needles on a grid of parallel lines and calculating the probability that they will cross a line. The probability is directly related to pi. Learn more about this approximation of pi from www.sciencefriday.com, then print out the toothpick grid sheet and throw some toothpicks to test this theory yourself. Links to an online simulator and hot-dog-throwing version too!