50 Digits of Pi Wrap Bracelet

Hello there! Welcome to this instructable.

This is a project that takes me all the way back to 5th grade. It was a Wednesday in March. I walked into my class at WINGS (a gifted program for students to attend once a week) and was surprised to see that the room was full of games and activities. "Happy Pi day!", my teacher cried as she greeted us students.

Confused, I turned to my friend with a face that clearly said, what the what? Looking back, it's no wonder that I opted out of the advanced math course that they offered later that year.

Anyway, one of the crafts that we did that day was making a 'Pi bracelet'. This was a bracelet with different colored plastic beads that stood for different numbers. With one of these bad boys, you were able to recite the first 20 digits of Pi. I remember practicing with my friends until we could recite our bracelets super fast as we walked down the hallway. This was fun until we noticed that all of the second and first graders were staring at us.

Good times.

So, I decided to put my own twist on that project in order to make a more sophisticated Pi day bracelet. I hope you enjoy!

For this bracelet you will need:

• Wire
• Pliers and Wire cutters
• 10 different types of colored beads
• Seed beads (optional)
• Knowledge of the first 50 digits of Pi (I copied them onto a notecard)
• Spare paper

To start, decide which beads will stand for what number. Here's a guide:

You will need: two '0' beads

You will need: five '1' beads

You will need: five '2' beads

You will need: eight '3' beads

You will need: four '4' beads

You will need: five '5' beads

You will need: four '6' beads

You will need: four '7' beads

You will need: five '8' beads

You will need: eight '9' beads

It's handy to make a key of what the different beads stand for in way of digits. I just copied the colors of the beads and the numbers they stood for onto a notecard.

This is as simple as it sounds. Measure out one arm's length of wire and then use the wire cutters to cut it.

I'm a complete amateur in wire wrapping, but I wanted to try to start the bracelet off with a Pi symbol. To do this, draw the Pi symbol on a scrap of paper, then draw arrows to symbolize the direction the wire should go as you bend it. Then, use the needle nose pliers to bend the wire into shape.

As you may be able to see, I added a little more wire wrap so that the beads wouldn't slide down onto the wire Pi. Go ahead an do that now if you want. After that, use your reference paper and string the beads on, alternating between seed beads and digit beads.

Now that your beads are strung, you need to keep them from falling off. I chose just to bend some of the wire back. If you don't want to do that then you could take the last bead off and restring it with a little super glue in the hole.

Alright! Now all you need to do is wrap the bracelet around your arm an you are finished. You are now ready to begin reciting the first 50 digits of Pi, and you also have a neat bracelet.

Another idea I had for the real math lovers is to try recreating this using the Fibonacci sequence...perhaps there will be a sequel to this Instructable one day? What do you think?

I hope that you enjoyed this Instructable! I would love to see pictures if anyone recreates this bracelet. Also, if you really liked this project please give it a vote in the Pi contest!