[U: First Answer] "Pi 2022" Game On! -- NCAA Brackets Tomorrow...

Time to exercise your brain muscles! Especially at 1:59 p.m. this afternoon. [But we will also be exercising a different core competency this afternoon, as we work our way through the bracket picks -- liking the draws of the Ramblers, Colorado State and Marquette at the moment.] Enjoy. I will source my cherry pie from the local "Hoosier Mama" pie shoppe. It is always first rate, and made with locally grown dark, ripe Michigan cherries, preserved from last Summer.

Here is the full set of problems, as a multi-color PDF from the kind folks at NASA. [Answers to be posted tomorrow morning. No cheating!]

. . .LUNAR LOGIC

NASA’s Lunar Flashlight mission will observe and map the location of frost within permanently shadowed craters in the Moon’s south polar region. Knowing how much frost is in these craters and where to find it can help us prepare for extended missions on the Moon, when water will be a valuable resource.

The spacecraft, a backpack-size cubesat, will collect data during 10 orbits over a two-month period, making repeated measurements over multiple points to map ice in these dark craters. To take measurements, Lunar Flashlight will send infrared laser pulses to the surface of the Moon and measure the signal that is reflected. The amount of light that is reflected back will help scientists determine where the lunar surface is dry and where it contains water-ice. At 20 km altitude, the spacecraft's infrared lasers have a radius of 17.5 meters when they reach the surface of the Moon. How much area do they cover in a single pulse?. . . .

Updated 8 p.m. EDT -- here is the answer to the one problem quoted above (rest tomorrow, in a separate post): Using the formula Area of a Given Circle = π times r², we would see that a 17.5 meter radius circle would have an area of. . . 962.112 square meters. Now you know. End updated portion.

There are several more puzzlers, of increasing difficulty at this poster-sized PDF handout -- read them on your screen and try your hand. Grinning a pie eating grin all day, now. . . while multi-tasking / working brackets as well!

नमस्ते