March 14th Officially Becomes National Pi Day 321
whitefox writes "The scoop from CNet is that 'The US House of Representatives on Wednesday approved a resolution introduced two days earlier that designates March 14, 2009 (3/14, get it?) as National Pi Day. It urges schools to take the opportunity to teach their students about Pi and "engage them about the study of mathematics."' The resolution is available online. I doubt it'll ever become a national holiday, but the Pi string in the article is pretty cool in a nerdy sort of way."
Ladies and Gentlemen... (Score:4, Insightful)
It's a Saturday (Score:5, Insightful)
Ahh, Congress. Finally get around to encouraging schools to use this for educational purposes on a year when it falls on a Saturday. Brilliant.
Day of the week (Score:4, Insightful)
On a saturday!?
Someone didn't think this through...
Anyways, I hereby reappropriate this holiday as National Pie Day. I'm having strawberry-rubarb.
Pi = 22/7 [Re:From across the pond] (Score:3, Insightful)
Unfortunately, we will never get a Pi day over here, as 3/14 doesn't exist. A sad day for the European lovers of Pi (a secret fraternity of which we do not speak)
No problem. Define Pi day to be 22/7.
Re:From across the pond (Score:5, Insightful)
A modest proposal (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:From across the pond (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:From across the pond (Score:5, Insightful)
Mod Parent Up (Score:2, Insightful)
It's probably a personal problem, but the representation of dates has always confused me. Once I found out about the ISO format, I was like "That's it!" Now I only ever use ISO, because it's as close to self-explanatory as you can get - everybody knows it's not their native cultural format because it starts with the year, and if follows logically with the next smaller time measurement in each position. I'd like to see us forget all date formats but ISO.
Re:It's a Saturday (Score:1, Insightful)
Don't you mean Ahh, Congress. Wasting taxpayers time on useless shit that the government doesn't need to do.?
Seriously, I'm as much of a geek as anybody, but why does the government have to waste time on stuff like this, resolutions about the national anthem, pledge of allegiance, lauding Child's Play, and so on? Shouldn't they be spending their time on things that actually matter?
You want kids to do better in school? Quit it with the gimmicks like this and spend time actually fixing the educational system.
Re:Ladies and Gentlemen... (Score:4, Insightful)
Troll? Perhaps the above comment could have done with a little more content, I don't see anything wrong with the implication that elected officials are wasting time and money on trivialities and showmanship.
If they really were keen to improve to state of mathematics, there are some very good things that they could do to start fixing some of the problems with the education system.
However, those things require action to be taken, and thus, responsibility for that action. It is easier for politicians to engage in this sort of political showmanship, because they look like they care about math, they get the political points for "doing something", and don't risk their actions working out not as well as planned (a risk everyone takes when they do anything) and exposing themselves to criticism from the opposition.
Politics is the art of being gutless while beating your chest as loudly as possible.
Re:From across the pond (Score:5, Insightful)
Whoever moderated this "insightful": you know April only has 30 days, don't you?
Re:From across the pond (Score:1, Insightful)
I always do dates like '14 Mar 2009.' While not in a logical sorting order, it at least immediately eliminates the confusion of what's the month and what's the day.
Re:Ladies and Gentlemen... (Score:4, Insightful)
The more they occupy their time with frivolous stuff like this, the less time they have to plan their next rape of our rights and pocketbooks.
Re:From across the pond (Score:3, Insightful)
considering that 22/7 is closer to pi than 3.14, I think it's definitely rather more than less.
Re:A modest proposal (Score:2, Insightful)
Yes! God forbid anyone worry about the ratio of the circumference of a circle to it's diameter. That would never have any practical application. I mean, it's only the basis for every calculation involving angles or anything. No one ever uses anything other than rectangles and simple right triangles in engineering.
Re:But March 14th is already taken! (Score:4, Insightful)
The counterpart holiday to Steak and BJ day is Valentines day. They don't need *another* holiday.
Re:It's a Saturday (Score:4, Insightful)
And apparently they can't do math, wouldn't July 22nd have made more sense: 22/7? (Not that school would be in regular session then either I know....)
I'm not sure what 0.2142857 or 4.666667 has to do with Pi?
Re:But March 14th is already taken! (Score:5, Insightful)
Read your post again after you've been married over a year.
Re:Ladies and Gentlemen... (Score:1, Insightful)
Privatized education. Yes, because the privatized health care system has made everyone in the US able to access uniformly excellent services.
Also, fuck you.