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I designed this investigation to challenge a high-flying year 9 group to see if they could apply the principles of relative frequency to explore whether pi is a normal number. Normal numbers are irrational numbers where, considering the digits after the decimal point, the likelihood of the next digit being a 1 is as likely as it is being any other digit. All digits have a 1 in 10 chance of coming next.

This investigation grew out of the pupils struggling to get their head around irrational numbers and in particular how there are an infinite number of digits after the decimal point. It’s a nice investigation because it links together many different topics in maths. Enjoy!

Click here to download the resource.