Pi day 3.14

Not that I realized it but I judged at my sons' Mad Math Meet today and they pointed it out. Micron Corporation sponsors the gifted and talented classes from the Boise school district to compete in a math meet - think track meet but with math problems instead of track and field events. There were over a dozen teams of six students competing. And today was for the fifth graders only; an equal number of sixth graders competed earlier in the week.
Because they are gifted and talented students you get some interesting goings on. Most of them cannot sit in a chair for more than 30 minutes at a time. Kids are popping up all over the room prairie dog fashion while a three minute timer counts down on the projected computer screen.
So are you smarter than a fifth grader? Have a go with this question: You have four chains, each three links long. It costs $.05 to cut a link and $.06 to rejoin a link. How much would it cost to make a single circle 12 links round? a. $.11, b. $.33, c. $.44, d. $.55 See the bottom of this post for the correct answer.
So why the big deal on Pi day? The BBC has an interesting take on it here
I think there is a great deal to the idea,

"the essential truth that there are some things we simply cannot know. We can only get close to knowing."
David Blatner, BBC web site

That's where mysticism comes in, or faith if you prefer a more American word for it.

The answer is b. $.33. Cut all three links of one chain and use them to join the remaining three chains into a circle 12 links round.