Pi Day Is Coming — But Tau Day Is Better

PerlJedi writes "A few months ago, a Tweet from Randal Schwartz pointed me to a YouTube video about 'Triangle Parties' made by Vi Hart. My nerdiness and my love of math made it my new favorite thing on YouTube. Now, with Pi Day coming up later this week, I thought it would be an appropriate time to point people to another of her YouTube videos: Pi is Wrong. The website she mentions at the end, Tauday, has a full explanation of the benefits of using Tau rather than Pi. Quoting: 'The Tau Manifesto is dedicated to one of the most important numbers in mathematics, perhaps the most important: the circle constant relating the circumference of a circle to its linear dimension. For millennia, the circle has been considered the most perfect of shapes, and the circle constant captures the geometry of the circle in a single number. Of course, the traditional choice for the circle constant is pi — but, as mathematician Bob Palais notes in his delightful article "Pi Is Wrong!", pi is wrong. It's time to set things right.'"

Agreed

[Ardeaem]

What, pi is 14.3? When did that happen?

Triangle Panties

[cpu6502]

Darn.
  I read that wrong.

I say we stick with pi. It's too labor-intensive to rewrite all the textbooks to read "tau" instead of "2*pi" and reteach everyone the new formulas.

Tau day is better

[Bob the Super Hamste]

Tau day is better because I have an excuse to get 2 pies instead of just one. I still celebrate pie day as well as groundhog day, mmmmm ground hog).

Re:Agreed

[Harold Halloway]

Being English, old-fashioned and inaccurate, I prefer to celebrate Pi Day on July 22nd.

Tau for the win

[mjrauhal]

Tau is twice the constant Pi ever was!

Pie are not squared!

[jd2112]

I remember arguing with my geometery teacher years ago, she kept saying pie are squared. I can't recall ever seeing a square pie. (Cobbler perhaps but never a square pie.)

Re:Bah. e is better than them all

[Bob Hearn]

Then, when somebody wants to argue that twice e is actually a better constant, we can say "2e or not 2e, that is the question."

Niether side is convincing

[sdhankin]

Both are irrational.

Re:Agreed

[HapSlappy_2222]

For now I don't really see the practical use of remembering Pi to that extent.

Chicks.