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March 14th Officially Becomes National Pi Day

Posted by Soulskill on from the pi-in-the-sky-legislation dept.

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."

42 of 321 comments (clear)

  1. Ladies and Gentlemen... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    your elected officials...HARD AT WORK!

    1. Re:Ladies and Gentlemen... by MrNaz · · 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.

      --
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    2. Re:Ladies and Gentlemen... by penginkun · · 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.

  2. But March 14th is already taken! by richy+freeway · · Score: 5, Informative

    Steak and Blowjob day has already claimed March 14th.

    http://www.steakandbjday.com/

    1. Re:But March 14th is already taken! by thestreetmeat · · Score: 5, Funny

      It's likely that if you're celebrating one, you're not celebrating the other.

    2. Re:But March 14th is already taken! by azgard · · Score: 5, Funny

      Maybe they should claim June 9th.

    3. Re:But March 14th is already taken! by The+Clockwork+Troll · · 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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    4. Re:But March 14th is already taken! by Firehed · · 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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    5. Re:But March 14th is already taken! by DaFallus · · Score: 3, Informative

      Its also Einstein's birthday.

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    6. Re:But March 14th is already taken! by Hatta · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The counterpart holiday to Steak and BJ day is Valentines day. They don't need *another* holiday.

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    7. Re:But March 14th is already taken! by cizoozic · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I thought that was fish taco and blowjob day.

    8. Re:But March 14th is already taken! by Deadstick · · Score: 5, Funny

      Well, you could call it Steak and Hair Pi Day.

      rj

    9. Re:But March 14th is already taken! by megaditto · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Read your post again after you've been married over a year.

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  3. It's a Saturday by crow · · 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.

    1. Re:It's a Saturday by Midnight+Thunder · · Score: 4, 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 ;)

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    2. Re:It's a Saturday by RJFerret · · Score: 3, 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?

    3. Re:It's a Saturday by wildsurf · · Score: 4, Informative

      The irony in all this is that Pi is Wrong!

      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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  4. e Day by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    What makes pi so special? Support making February 71st e Day!

    1. Re:e Day by Sponge+Bath · · Score: 4, Funny

      Why not celebrate both and call it pie day.

  5. Pi string by tpheiska · · 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.

    --
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  6. From across the pond by Underholdning · · Score: 4, Funny

    I never get used to the MM/DD way of typing dates. If it wasn't for the sarcastic remark (3/14, get it?) I wouldn't have caught it. 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)

    --
    Underholdning.info
    1. Re:From across the pond by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      But Pi approximation day - 22/7 is quite a holiday I hear.

    2. Re:From across the pond by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      We're planning a big party on 31 April 2015 (31/4/15), starts 9:26.

    3. Re:From across the pond by OolimPhon · · Score: 4, Funny

      Not a problem! We just declare 31st April European Pi Day instead!

    4. Re:From across the pond by DerPflanz · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Euhm, there are more languages in the world than English, many of them also use dates; I say "veertien maart tweeduizend negen". Which makes 14/03/2009. Besides, this way, the smallest (day) comes first, then the bigger (month), then the biggest (year). There is a reason that ISO dates are yyyy-mm-dd (big-to-small), so they sort correctly.

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    5. Re:From across the pond by JanneM · · Score: 4, Funny

      22/7 is quite a holiday I hear

      Well - more or less.

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    6. Re:From across the pond by Vadim+Makarov · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Slash-separated date formats are ambiguous, varying between countries. If you want to avoid confusion, use the ISO date format: YYYY-MM-DD. E.g., 2009-03-14.

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    7. Re:From across the pond by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

      MM/DD makes more sense. How do you verbally say a date?

      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.

    8. Re:From across the pond by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Whoever moderated this "insightful": you know April only has 30 days, don't you?

    9. Re:From across the pond by Volanin · · Score: 4, 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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    10. Re:From across the pond by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      considering that 22/7 is closer to pi than 3.14, I think it's definitely rather more than less.

    11. Re:From across the pond by xaxa · · Score: 3, 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).

  7. Day of the week by radarsat1 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    It urges schools to take the opportunity to teach their students about Pi and "engage them about the study of mathematics."

    On a saturday!?

    Someone didn't think this through...

    Anyways, I hereby reappropriate this holiday as National Pie Day. I'm having strawberry-rubarb.

  8. Pie! by conureman · · Score: 3, Funny

    I just told my girlfriend it was National Pi Day, and she asked me what kind I wanted ;)

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    1. Re:Pie! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

      Cream pie?

    2. Re:Pie! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      you should have told her it was steak and blowjob day.

    3. Re:Pie! by Tryle · · Score: 3, Funny

      The correct answer is hair pie.

  9. Re:Not every year... by GospelHead821 · · Score: 3, 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.

    --
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  10. A modest proposal by azaris · · Score: 5, Insightful

    How about teaching children about all the ways mathematics is useful in the sciences, engineering, public policy making, risk analysis, investments etc. rather than advocating pointless numerology that makes "mathematicians" look more like deranged Pythagoreans who worship numbers?

  11. Pi Day in Europe... by rHBa · · Score: 5, Funny

    In Europe we celebrate Pi on the 31st of April...

    ...oh!

  12. Re:The world is bigger than the USA alone... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    In ENGLISH, we say "fourteenth of March". In AMERICAN, they say "March fourteen".

  13. Ladies and Gentlmen by kitsunewarlock · · Score: 3, Funny

    PI IS EXACTLY THREE!

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