We are pleased to announce that puzzles are currently being designed for Pi Day 2011.

Pi Day Challenge 2011

The web-based version of the Pi Day Challenge is in its 4th consecutive year.  Last year was our most significant.  In less than 3 weeks, over 150,000 puzzles were completed by over 6,000 facebook users and 90,000 guests worldwide.  We had players from over 120 countries – United States being 1st, Japan being second.

Pi Day 2011 should be bigger than ever! Come celebrate Pi Day 2011 with us.

Spread the Word Pi Day Challenge

You can help our small team spread the word about pi.

1. Got a puzzle idea?  Let us know.
2. Are you a teacher? Tell other teachers about Pi Day Challenge.

You may have noticed that the comments section on the Pi Day Challenge went down. We were blissfully unaware of this since Pi Day has dwindled down a bit – but we fixed the issue and we’re back online!

As always, if you have any ideas, questions, or comments, contact us anytime! Facebook is a great place to do it – http://facebook.com/pidaychallenge.

Cheers!

-The Pi Day Challenge Team

We have an email notification feature that notifies the administers (us) when a user submits an answer, and what their IP address is (no other identifying information).

So, I did a little more digging.

Come to find out, the Pi Day Challenge has spread across the World.  Here’s some random selections!  I am not making this up!

• Argentina
• Berlin
• Hawaii
• Sydney
• Turkey
• France
• San Sebastian, Spain
• Madrid, Spain
• Russian Federation

Thank You Pi Day Challengers from across the Globe!

If this keeps up, we’re going to kill the server again!

-Alex

WOW!  We’ve almost hit the 1,000 mark for Facebook users taking the 2010 Challenge.

If you have a moment, we would love a review.  Tell us what you think!  Simply go to http://www.facebook.com/pidaychallenge and click on “Reviews” at the top.

Happy Pi Day!

-Team Pi Day Challenge

We were on the first page this morning – before the server went down – hopefully we appear back on the first page sometime today!

We could have wasted hours on end optimizing our site… but instead we focused on building better puzzles.

Scaling problems are good problems.  Today we had a good problem.  Luckily it all happened around lunchtime – so hopefully you all took a break and are refreshed and ready to continue the challenge!

At approximately 12:30 EST, we had over 1500 guests and 700 Facebook users taking the challenge.  And then… it happened.  We used up all of the memory on our server, and down we went.

Thanks to Slicehost… we were able to “resize” our server in under 2 hours.  This may seem like a no-brainer feature… but it’s actually pretty genius.  Slicehost has a web interface – you can click two buttons and resize your server instantaneously.

Slicehost also has killer support.  You can tell that their team really cares and loves what they do.  Thanks to Ben & Tim from Slicehost for chatting with me and giving me some ideas to optimize once we get back online!

Now – let’s see if 4GB can handle Pi Day 2010!

Wow!  What a great response!  So far there are about 400 people on Facebook who have started the Pi Day Challenge!

Two announcements:

1. Hints
   Hints are coming on Pi Day!
2. Invite Friends
   The invite friends feature was broken – it’s all set now.  Please take a minute to invite some of your friends!’

Thanks!

This year we created usernames via Facebook.  We are seeing a great response – however, the drawback is the inability for teachers to check student progress.

Today, we are solving that problem. Starting tomorrow, you will be able to search for anyone who is taking the Pi Day Challenge – even if your network blocks access to Facebook.  This means that you will be able to look up a  student by their name and see their current level, Facebook picture, and name.

So – feel free to assign the Challenge as an extra credit assignment.

If you have any questions, let us know!

This year’s Pi Day Challenge has officially started!

This year, we’re using Facebook - make sure to invite your friends!

Good Luck!

Pi Day Challenge 2010 is a GO!

Pi Day is [fergcorp_cdt]

Our team of logicians have been working on creating puzzles that will be sure to push your logical self to the next level.

Become a Fan on Facebook!
http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=333491178100

Follow us on Twitter & help us get a massive following before Pi Day!
http://twitter.com/pidaychallenge

We’re excited to bring the joy of mathematics and logic to more people around the world – help us spread the word!

Yours in Mathematics,

Matthew Plummer
Pi Day Challenge