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)
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: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.
Heh, not quite... (Score:2)
Methinks you underestimate their ability to multitask in such endeavors. They have been wasting time on frivolous stuff just as long as they have been raping our rights and pocketbooks. (Even with pi-related matters [wikipedia.org] for that matter, for over a century!)
But March 14th is already taken! (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.steakandbjday.com/
Re:But March 14th is already taken! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:But March 14th is already taken! (Score:5, Funny)
Well, you could call it Steak and Hair Pi Day.
rj
Re:But March 14th is already taken! (Score:5, Funny)
Maybe they should claim June 9th.
Re:But March 14th is already taken! (Score:4, Interesting)
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ssssshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh..... you're feeding the numerologists with brand new "data"!
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At least we know what to get you for your birthday
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:But March 14th is already taken! (Score:5, Insightful)
Read your post again after you've been married over a year.
Re:But March 14th is already taken! (Score:5, Funny)
If everyone shut their pie hole, Steak and BJ day wouldn't exactly be as much fun either.
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Well, there are still two other holes available. Should not pose any problems... :D
Re:But March 14th is already taken! (Score:5, Funny)
You can do as you please, but I for one will NOT be putting steak up my nose.
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Done right, it will end up in your stomach anyway. So what? :P
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.
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Well, it doesn't matter, because after you've taken care 3 and 14, you still have the rest of the decimal precision to consider: .0015926...
To be certain not to miss the critical moment, the students would have had to have been celebrating at some point between 137 and 138 seconds past midnight this morning.
no the celebration is at 4pm (Score:3, Interesting)
Well, it doesn't matter, because after you've taken care 3 and 14, you still have the rest of the decimal precision to consider: .0015926...
To be certain not to miss the critical moment, the students would have had to have been celebrating at some point between 137 and 138 seconds past midnight this morning.
since the 3 and the 14 part are in different units one might as well continue that strategy. If you celebrate at 4 pm then on a 16:00 hour clock that is 15:16 to give
3:14:16
Re:It's a Saturday (Score:5, Funny)
Ahh, Congress. Finally get around to encouraging schools to use this for educational purposes on a year when it falls on a Saturday. Brilliant.
No need to worry, since over time the meaning will be lost and it will be assumed it was national 'Pie day'. For the years to come Apple pies will be sold in millions on this special day ;)
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:It's a Saturday (Score:5, Informative)
For a variety of reasons, the number 2pi (6.2832...) works out much better as a fundamental constant than Pi, and it simplifies many mathematical formulas. The linked article suggests that 2pi be labeled a 'turn'; so in that sense, 90 degrees is a quarter-turn; etc. Surprisingly insightful.
So while the rest of you jump the gun, I'll be celebrating on June 28th.
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Congresscritters can't do math; they have no idea of the significance of 22/7.
Anyway, March 14 is Pi day because it can be written 3.14.
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e Day (Score:5, Funny)
What makes pi so special? Support making February 71st e Day!
Re:e Day (Score:5, Funny)
Why not celebrate both and call it pie day.
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I was thinking February 7th.
Now a real tough one would be the fine structure constant 1/137
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No mere physical constant can rival the perfection that is e.
Pi Day in Europe... (Score:5, Funny)
Pi string (Score:5, Funny)
"Pi string in the article is pretty cool in a nerdy sort of way."
First thought: Ah, they have some kind of string representation of pi instead of just using a double. Excuse me, I'll kill myself now.
From across the pond (Score:5, Funny)
Re:From across the pond (Score:5, Funny)
But Pi approximation day - 22/7 is quite a holiday I hear.
Re:From across the pond (Score:4, Funny)
22/7 is quite a holiday I hear
Well - more or less.
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considering that 22/7 is closer to pi than 3.14, I think it's definitely rather more than less.
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We Europeans will have to suffice with e day, (day two of month 7), which is OK since e outperforms pi in maths anyway.
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That you can do more things with e. (a^x)' = (a^x)*ln(a) and every formula with the for a^x can be rewritten to an e power. Furthermore e^(i*g) = cos(g) + i*sin(g) and e is used extensively in calculating odds. Pi has its uses but isn't so omnipresent as e is.
Puts the vi vs emacs wars into proportion... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:From across the pond (Score:4, Informative)
that would read 7/2, so it would have to be february 7th.
In Europe (actually, most places outside the US) we write DD-MM-YYYY or similar (DD/MM/YYYY, DD.MM.YYYY etc). This seems more logical to me, as days are smaller than months, and months are smaller than years.
In Japan, and in ISO date format, it's YYYY-MM-DD.
2/7 is the 2nd of July (or July 2nd, in American).
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)
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:5, Informative)
Nice!
I am totally in!
Now we only have to manage the silly limitation that April only goes to 30!
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Or April 1st? (April Fool's...)
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All of these two-digit dates are just going to create another computer glitch. Travel back to 3/14/1592 with me or skip it entirely (unless you want to wait around till 15926)
Re:From across the pond (Score:4, Funny)
Not a problem! We just declare 31st April European Pi Day instead!
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MM/DD makes more sense. How do you verbally say a date? Every person I know says "March fourteenth two thousand nine", not "fourteenth March two thousand nine".
Many years ago I found an article about how dates SHOULD be written. Since time is always largest to smallest, HH/MM/SS, dates should be formatted the same way. Likewise, UNIX time is the same way with the smaller values to the right and larger ones to the left.
Knowing all of this, and to be a slight pain, when I purchased my home I signed all dates
Re:From across the pond (Score:5, Insightful)
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I will have to remember to do this when I buy a home, especially if the loan agent is as much a pain as my parents' loan agent was last time when he got impatient because they wanted to read the entire loan document prior to signing it.
Re:From across the pond (Score:4, Informative)
I know just a few Europen languages, but here are some examples: "el 4 de julio", "4. juli" or "4th of July". We use either little endian (4th of July, 2009) or big endian (2009-07-04), but not middle endian (September 11th, 2001) like you do.
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In Swedish you do say "fourteenth of march" ("fjortonde mars"), making 14/3 a natural way of expressing the date. I believe a number of other European languages use the same order.
We do sometimes use the order you describe of year-month-day, but only in forms and such when you actually express the whole thing, with year, leading zeros and all: 09-03-14 for 14th march, 2009 is fine, but 3-14 is not.
The world is bigger than the USA alone... (Score:3, Informative)
This means that every person you know speaks English. This is not the case in Europe...
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Actually, in some places they do say "fourteen March two thousand and nine." Either one is clear. It's using month numbers to represent names that creates problems.
The ISO 8601 recommends that interchange formats for date representations go from most significant to least significant, in which case NEITHER MM/DD/YYYY nor DD/MM/YYYY suffice. It should be YYYY-MM-DD. The UK convention is arguably consistent in that it goes from least to most significant, but then you're screwed when you try to add time bec
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I, for one, welcome my legislatures' recognition of the irrational in government.
In formal English, the date has always been written out as "...on Saturday the fourteenth of March, two thousand nine, at three o'clock in the afternoon" (as in an invitation). Note that the year is a parenthetical phrase set off by commas. In less formal writing with the slash abbreviation this becomes "...on Sat 3/14, 2009, at 3:00 pm" which is a form that has been in use in the USA before there was a USA. So the further co
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Everyone you know must be American.
4th of July? (Score:3, Informative)
How do you verbally say a date? Every person I know says "March fourteenth two thousand nine", not "fourteenth March two thousand nine".
No actually I always say 14th March and I write it that way as well. That is how it is written and spoken in English. Even you Americans refer to the 4th of July and not July 4 so clearly you used to pronounce it that way but have somehow lost it over the years. So if you are speaking American you are probably correct (with the one exception) but when speaking/writing English the correct way is always 14th March 2009. If you don't knwo any English speakers then there is no reason for you to have known this
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I use stardates you insensitive clod! Right now is stardate 62666.2. Our last pi day, stardate 31415.9, was over 30 years ago.
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.
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I still don't get it. 3/14 is 0.2(142857). That's nowhere near pi!
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It's because we love it so much that we don't allow our politicians to know of it's existence.
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.
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On a saturday!?
Someone didn't think this through...
It wasn't that hard to engage my 5th grade students with deriving pi yesterday - pi day eve - instead. Please find something reasonable to complain about!
Not every year... (Score:3, Informative)
The last one was March 14, 1592. There will be another in 13917 years.
Re:Not every year... (Score:4, Interesting)
Naw, not really. They should just make it like Mol Day, in October. Avogadro's Number is 6.02 x 10^23, so Mol Day is celebrated on 10/23 from 6:02 a.m. to 6:02 p.m.
You could celebrate Pi Day on 3/14 from 1:59 a.m. until 1:59 p.m. I suppose that means that children with late-afternoon math classes miss out, though. Maybe it could be like New Year's Eve and the kids are encouraged to spend the day preparing and then at 1:59 p.m. everybody shouts "Happy Pi Day!" and that's when the real [math] party starts.
Caldendar check (Score:3, Informative)
The last one was March 14, 1592.
If we are going to use the Gregorian calendar, then we should probably see what Europe knew about Pi in 1592. According to Pi History [wikipedia.org], there was no significant contribution to the understanding of Pi in Europe after Archimedes until Ludolph van Ceulen [wikipedia.org] came up with a 20-digit approximation, in 1596. I'm afraid he was 4 years to late for Pi day.
Typical good timing.... (Score:2)
Good work on declaring a National Pi Day on 3/14, for whatever significance a Congress-designated "National * Day" has, but they had to do it when it falls on a Saturday? Methinks that schools won't do much to teach about Pi and math on a Saturday, and a lot of the significance of the date would be lost if they taught about it on Friday or Monday, neither of which are 3/14.
[/curmudgeon]
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Pie! (Score:4, Funny)
I just told my girlfriend it was National Pi Day, and she asked me what kind I wanted ;)
Re:Pie! (Score:4, Funny)
Cream pie?
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you should have told her it was steak and blowjob day.
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Exception in module (Score:2)
Well, except in Alabama, where pi day is 03/01. :D /yes, it's been debunked //it says something that people believed it ///i still think it's funny
House has nothing better to do? (Score:2)
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anything that distracts them from their ongoing wealth transfer to fat cats is welcome
A modest proposal (Score:5, Insightful)
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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.
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Yes! God forbid anyone worry about the ratio of the circumference of a circle to it's diameter.
Obsessing over the decimal digits of pi won't teach the students anything. It also makes math teachers look like morons.
Darren Aronofsky will jump with joy, but giving... (Score:2)
That's... good? (Score:2)
Actually, I don't know what to say. Really, no idea at all. Although I have to admit that anything that raises math-awareness in school is good, but will it lead to that?
one and a half months till uk pi day (Score:2)
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In related news,Intelligent Design advocates urged (Score:2)
SCNR
Oh for the love of (Score:2)
It's bad enough that I had to put up with pointless shit like this from the idiot teachers in High School, and now this is becoming official?
Pi day? Really? You just happen to celebrate the alignment of a set of three numbers? Who the hell cares?
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National Day of Slayer is June 6th (Score:2)
I wish they'd approve holidays for subcultural groups, like the "National Day of Slayer" (National Day of Prayer needed a counterpoint). It's for metalheads and anyone else who appreciates that Slayer is like Dvorak with balls.
National Day of Slayer [nationaldayofslayer.org]
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NATIONAL PI MOMENT! (Score:2)
3.1415926
March 14th, 26 seconds past 1:59 AM!
I could rip it all the way down to picoseconds, but I'm fscking lazy. DO YOUR OWN DAMN MATH!
I don't get it (Score:2)
Everyone knows the real pi day is July 22.
To celebrate... (Score:2)
Methinks I'm going to watch the movie "Pi" by Darren Aronofsky :D.
Ladies and Gentlmen (Score:4, Funny)