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Pi Day and an Interview With a Pi Researcher

Posted by timothy on from the much-depends-on-your-date-format dept.

JoshuaInNippon writes "In honor of Pi Day, March 14 (or 3.14 for those who may need a hint), readers may be interested in reading an interview with Professor Daisuke Takahashi, the Japanese researcher who found 2.5 trillion digits of Pi back in August, before being apparently being edged out in December by a French computer programmer looking to prove his efficient coding abilities. Professor Takahashi's interview gives some unique insight into one man who truly marvels at the number that has driven people to ever greater lengths to find more digits for centuries." Plant Kingdom adds "There have been a number of proposals for alternatives to March 14 (see the Wikipedia page for Pi Day). Here's mine: when the Earth has gone through 1/pi-th of its orbit, as measured from Winter Solstice to Winter Solstice. I've put together a web site to make the case."

188 comments

  1. I don't get it by Hognoxious · · Score: 5, Informative

    Huh? Pi isn't 14.3 or 14/3.

    --
    Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    1. Re:I don't get it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      idiot american system of month.day instead of day.month

    2. Re:I don't get it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      But it's my birthday so shut up!

    3. Re:I don't get it by isorox · · Score: 2, Informative

      Huh? Pi isn't 14.3 or 14/3.

      No, but it's close to 22nd July.

    4. Re:I don't get it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Exactly! Pi Day really should be on the 3rd day of the 14th month.

    5. Re:I don't get it by my+$anity++0 · · Score: 1
      And it wouldn't really affect our common parlance, because normally the more significant digits are ignored/assumed. Unless you're the Doctor, no one really needs to tell you the year most of the time.

      So, when talking to timelords, say 2010, March 14th, and everyone else just "March 14th" or even "The 14th".

      While smallest end first would also make sense, to make it consistent, SS:MM:HH DD/MM/YYYY is a bit awkward and by the time you finish saying it the second (or minute) may have changed.

    6. Re:I don't get it by mrsquid0 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      No, day-month-year is more sensible since the size of the unit is increasing monotonically. The sanest way to do it would be year-month-day, because then you could increase the precision of the time string to whatever you needed just by adding units to the right. The month-day-year system is probably the lease sensible method of the lot.

      --
      Just because you are paranoid does not mean that no-one is out to get you.
    7. Re:I don't get it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Pi Day really should be on the 3rd day of the 14th month.

      And we are in the 19th month right now. Only a week of fasting left to go before the New Year.

    8. Re:I don't get it by rjch · · Score: 1

      No, obviously Pi day is January 3rd. Though to be completely accurate, Pi day won't occur until January 3rd, 4159. A Wednesday, for anyone who's interested.

    9. Re:I don't get it by MobileTatsu-NJG · · Score: 3, Interesting

      The month-day-year system is probably the lease sensible method of the lot.

      Not to those of us who often work with dates that often land on the next month. As a friend of mine likes to say "six of one, half dozen of the other."

      The sanest way to do it would be year-month-day...

      This gets my vote.

      --

      "I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)

    10. Re:I don't get it by Cimexus · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Yup, yyyy-mm-dd is the ISO standard date format for a reason. You get the advantage of easier chronological sorting (ala the US system of month/day), and the unambiguity of the unit size constantly going in one direct (in this case, largest to smallest).

    11. Re:I don't get it by Z00L00K · · Score: 1

      Year-Month-Day as in the ISO standard it's 2010-03-14.

      --
      If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker would destroy civilization.
    12. Re:I don't get it by Anne_Nonymous · · Score: 1

      As a friend of mine likes to say "six of one, half dozen of the other."

      Over here we say "A half dozen of one, six of the other" you barbarian.

    13. Re:I don't get it by onedotzero · · Score: 1

      Or, a much quicker version: "six and two threes".

    14. Re:I don't get it by Ihmhi · · Score: 1

      Yeah, and continuing to use Imperial also has a mile-long list of disadvantages, yet here we are.

      --
      Random Thoughts From A Diseased Mind (Not For Dummies)
    15. Re:I don't get it by M.+Baranczak · · Score: 2, Funny

      In Indiana, it's celebrated on March 2.

    16. Re:I don't get it by lithero04 · · Score: 1

      Plus, when you sort something using yyyy-mm-dd format alphabetically, it also sorts it chronologically. I find this very useful and as such tend to use this date format the most often.

    17. Re:I don't get it by radtea · · Score: 1

      The sanest way to do it would be year-month-day, because then you could increase the precision of the time string to whatever you needed just by adding units to the right

      ISO standard date format is YYYY-MM-DD. Everything else is non-standard's compliant gibberish of the kind that under most circumstances /.'ers would be violently opposed to (especially if Microsoft did it.)

      ISO 8601 is the full standard, which includes times in the form:

      YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss (the letter "T" is often replaced with a space for human-readable but non-standard date/time presentation).

      I have no idea if the standard has accommodation for the archaic AM/PM system of representation.

      There is really no excuse for not using ISO 8601 standard date/times, other than cultural prejudice, insularity and parochialism. And no one will ever again have to ask, "What does 10/11/12 mean?"

      If you disagree with me, please tell me what I mean by 10/11/12. Since this date format is so much superior to all others in the eyes of some they should have no trouble at all telling me exactly what that date means, as opposed to:

      2010-11-12
      2010-12-11
      2011-10-12
      2011-12-10
      2012-10-11
      2012-11-10

      none of which can be easily confused with the others.

      Anyone in favour of standardized anything ought to be in favour of standardized date/time formats.

      --
      Blasphemy is a human right. Blasphemophobia kills.
    18. Re:I don't get it by Thinboy00 · · Score: 1

      I have no idea if the standard has accommodation for the archaic AM/PM system of representation.

      True UTC has no sense of AM/PM.

      --
      $ make available
    19. Re:I don't get it by TimboJones · · Score: 1

      What? 03014159? The digit 0 does not appear in pi until the 32nd position after the decimal point. Surely you're not trying to equate 0 with a decimal point?

      Please just let go of this archaic month/day/year standard. Obviously it's not even used consistently - 03/01 vs. January 3? If the month should come first when spelled out, how can one with clear conscience insist that it come second when in numeric form?

      Really, why deny any day its connection to pi? Find any reason at all to equate any date with pi and eat pie as often as you can, because pie is good.

    20. Re:I don't get it by alfredos · · Score: 1

      The sanest way to do it would be year-month-day, because then you could increase the precision of the time string to whatever you needed just by adding units to the right.

      That's the way it is done in DNS zones, which is great. It's so great that even my petition ring has the date in that format. I believe the Japanese use it, but haven't bothered to research the fact.

    21. Re:I don't get it by mduse · · Score: 1

      even worse, what I don't get is how come make a celebration of something such abstract and universal as pi on a 3 -1 =2 months 14 days from a date (new year's day) that as nothing abstract nor universal... I'm sure any other civilization that looks at new year's day just as another day to find the choice of the pi day rather frivolously occidental...

    22. Re:I don't get it by Zerth · · Score: 1

      unambiguity of the unit size constantly going in one direct (in this case, largest to smallest).

      !dolc evitisnesni uoy tfel ot thgir daer I

    23. Re:I don't get it by Malc · · Score: 1

      The US system is dreadful for chronological sorting. It only holds up if you don't go past 31st Dec, and then in time you end up with a bloody mess that is hard to sift through, which is only marginally better than dd-mm-yyyy.

    24. Re:I don't get it by newcastlejon · · Score: 1

      Who sorts dates as if they were strings/numbers?

      Doesn't the date type come with its own rules for sorting? If not, why not?

      --
      If God forks the Universe every time you roll a die, he'd better have a damned good memory.
    25. Re:I don't get it by geezer+nerd · · Score: 1

      It is done all the time. Often things like logfiles, etc will have a date as part of the file name. e.g. logfile-20100315.log If the date is expressed as yyyymmdd then the list of files can be sorted as characters and fall into chronological order, which can be very beneficial. If done within a program, then the date type can be sorted by its own rules. It may be advantageous sometimes to keep the date in the string form and sort that way.

    26. Re:I don't get it by ElderKorean · · Score: 1

      Huh? Pi isn't 14.3 or 14/3.

      No, but it's close to 22nd July.

      I refer to July 22 as Pi Approximation Day, as 22/7 is approximately Pi - it's close enough for most things

      It's also nearly my birthday, so another reason to celebrate. :-)

    27. Re:I don't get it by isorox · · Score: 2, Funny

      It's also nearly my birthday, so another reason to celebrate. :-)

      Surely you mean approximately your birthday?

    28. Re:I don't get it by imakemusic · · Score: 1

      Um, firstly the parent mentioned this already.

      You get the advantage of easier chronological sorting (ala the US system of month/day)

      Secondly, you can't sort a date alphabetically because dates are comprised of digits, not letters of the alphabet.

      --
      Brain surgery - it's not rocket science!
    29. Re:I don't get it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not to those of us who often work with dates that often land on the next month.

      Er, why? Other than it being what you are used to, I don't see how either way is easier regardless of the dates you work with.

    30. Re:I don't get it by MobileTatsu-NJG · · Score: 1

      Er, why? Other than it being what you are used to...

      Because we're always saying the month when we talk about dates. In most cases the month is the more important number than the day.

      --

      "I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)

    31. Re:I don't get it by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

      I've seen dates stored in DB tables as strings in MM/DD/YY format. Yes, it was before Y2K and yes, including the separators.

      It was apparently because the user wanted it displayed like that. Yes, the system did have a date type, and yes, it had more output formatting functions than you could shake a stick at.

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    32. Re:I don't get it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      faggot

  2. Pi day? by burris · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Judging by the big hunk of meat in my 'fridge, today is Steak and BJ Day. Pi day just isn't nearly as fun.

    1. Re:Pi day? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You're posting on slashdot -- enjoy the steak :P

    2. Re:Pi day? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So who's the lucky guy?

    3. Re:Pi day? by zippthorne · · Score: 3, Funny

      Pi day is irrational, but at least it's real.

      --
      Can you be Even More Awesome?!
    4. Re:Pi day? by __aanaom1261 · · Score: 1

      After steak and a blowjob, I'm not sure I've got room for pi....

    5. Re:Pi day? by interkin3tic · · Score: 2, Funny

      Judging by the big hunk of meat in my 'fridge, today is Steak and BJ Day

      Please tell me the "big hunk of meat" in your fridge is for the steak part of that day. You're doing it wrong if not.

    6. Re:Pi day? by gmhowell · · Score: 1

      I always have to eat pi before a bj.

      --
      Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon
    7. Re:Pi day? by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

      Try it afterwards, it'll take the taste away.

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
  3. Don't forget. by myocardialinfarction · · Score: 4, Funny

    Don't forget it's also mother's day. And nobody makes better pi than mom. /duck

    1. Re:Don't forget. by JustOK · · Score: 1

      Mom's too busy playing baseball

      --
      rewriting history since 2109
    2. Re:Don't forget. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Doesnt count if she only uses the bat.

    3. Re:Don't forget. by witherstaff · · Score: 1

      You get your bitch ass back in the kitchen and make me some pie!

    4. Re:Don't forget. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Our Mother's Day is in May, you insensitive clod!

    5. Re:Don't forget. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Those who celebrate one do not celebrate the other. It is no coincidence these two events are held on the same day as they are mutually exclusive.

  4. My suggestion by 2.7182 · · Score: 1

    The earth should have undergone 1/2 of one orbit.

    1. Re:My suggestion by jschen · · Score: 3, Funny

      Regarding 2.7182's statement: I'm surprised you're not advocating e day (Feb 7? July 2?) instead. The combination would be good, though. Celebrate pi and e, and we get pie! How about pi + e day? At ~5.9, that would make May 9 or Sept 5 into Pie Day.

    2. Re:My suggestion by fastest+fascist · · Score: 2, Funny

      Don't you know "e" is illegal in most countries?

    3. Re:My suggestion by wisnoskij · · Score: 1

      I was thinking the same thing, since pi is 180 degrees and the earth has ~ a round orbit.
      1/2 of its orbit makes sense.

      --
      Troll is not a replacement for I disagree.
    4. Re:My suggestion by Antony-Kyre · · Score: 1

      e, pi, they're both important numbers. Perhaps they both deserve their own days. Now, I'm off to bed. I stayed up too late. But before I go, here's a joke. Please let me know how bad it is.

      Dream food: ln(-1)

    5. Re:My suggestion by moyix · · Score: 1

      Eye pie? That sounds kind of gross.

    6. Re:My suggestion by blai · · Score: 1

      Combined with the speed of light, we might be able to celebrate the [e][pi][c] day. I'm funding 2 LoC's.

      --
      In soviet Russia, God creates you!
    7. Re:My suggestion by Antony-Kyre · · Score: 1

      Imaginary pie.

    8. Re:My suggestion by RivenAleem · · Score: 1

      The pie is a lie

  5. US-centricity by garyok · · Score: 5, Funny

    In the UK, we have to wait until the 31st April to have pi day. We'll be waiting a while...

    --
    One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors - Plato
    1. Re:US-centricity by sakdoctor · · Score: 2, Informative

      TFA suggests Archimedes' approximation of 22/7

    2. Re:US-centricity by bguiz · · Score: 1

      There is quite likely a plethora of different dates in our calendar year that map to the fist digits of pi in decimal form, or the digits in its improper fraction approximations. So yes, there will likely never be any agreement on what is the "real" pi day.

      Not to mention /. isn't where one should seek consensus anyway!

    3. Re:US-centricity by keeboo · · Score: 2, Funny

      I'm programming at this moment and it was just what I needed! Thanks!

      #define PI_VALUE 22/7

    4. Re:US-centricity by ryzvonusef · · Score: 1

      Surely, you mean 22nd July, there is no way those silly Americans can fub that ;-)

      --
      I am an ACCA student. Got a query on Accountancy/Finance? Maybe I can help!
    5. Re:US-centricity by canthusus · · Score: 1

      I shall be celebrating at 3:14 on 15th September 2653

    6. Re:US-centricity by mrsurb · · Score: 4, Funny
      Don't forget to localise for differing values of pi:

      #ifdef INDIANA
      #define PI_VALUE 3
      #endif

    7. Re:US-centricity by Smallpond · · Score: 1

      355/113 is better

    8. Re:US-centricity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes, they can, 22nd. July was the state holiday in the former Peoples Republic of Poland. We would be celebrating communists.

    9. Re:US-centricity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Walt? Is that you? Shouldn't you be sleeping?

    10. Re:US-centricity by crazycheetah · · Score: 1

      What drugs are you on that defy aging so well?!

    11. Re:US-centricity by slugstone · · Score: 0

      Surely, you mean 22nd July, there is no way those silly Americans can fub that ;-)

      hey, just us a little room and we will.

    12. Re:US-centricity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Too bad you are a year early ... I think you mean "3:14 on 15th September 2654".

    13. Re:US-centricity by sootman · · Score: 1

      Just celebrate on Quadectober 3, duh.

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      Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
    14. Re:US-centricity by jschen · · Score: 1

      Only if you insist on rounding up. If truncating digits, then he's planning for the correct year.

    15. Re:US-centricity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So, PI_VALUE is exactly 3.

    16. Re:US-centricity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes it is!

    17. Re:US-centricity by Malc · · Score: 1

      I think that 22nd July is more appropriate because we can only ever approximate pi anyway.

    18. Re:US-centricity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Probably forever...

    19. Re:US-centricity by afabbro · · Score: 1

      Adopt ISO 8601 and you won't have to wait.

      --
      Advice: on VPS providers
    20. Re:US-centricity by sreservoir · · Score: 1

      103993/33102

  6. Bad news by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Redundant

    No matter how clever your code or how powerful your computer is, you'll never get all digits of PI. There are infinitely many. You'd think a math professor would know something like that.

    1. Re:Bad news by celibate+for+life · · Score: 1

      Thank you, Captain Obvious.

    2. Re:Bad news by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      All for science.

    3. Re:Bad news by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You're welcome, General Phuckup

    4. Re:Bad news by Calydor · · Score: 1

      No matter how clever your comments on Slashdot or how powerful your work ethic is, you'll never get all the money in the world. There are (technically, due to the ability to print more) infinitely many, so you may as well stop trying to get some of them.

      --
      -=This sig has nothing to do with my comment. Move along now=-
    5. Re:Bad news by blai · · Score: 1

      O RLY?

      --
      In soviet Russia, God creates you!
  7. wouldn't it just be summer solstice? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    shows how much us gov respects science, don't even understand the meaning of pi.

  8. Ellipse != Circle by Mattwolf7 · · Score: 0

    Pi is relevant to the circumference of circles. The earth has an elliptical orbit. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circumference

    1. Re:Ellipse != Circle by Ardeaem · · Score: 3, Informative

      Pi is relevant to the circumference of circles. The earth has an elliptical orbit. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circumference

      Um...pi is relevant to a lot of things, including ellipses. And besides, the orbit of the Earth has very low eccentricity, meaning it is very close to a circle. Who modded the parent "informative"?

    2. Re:Ellipse != Circle by xous · · Score: 1

      If I recall correctly Pi is used to calculate the Area, Surface area, and volume of an Ellipse.

    3. Re:Ellipse != Circle by noisyinstrument · · Score: 3, Funny

      Clearly it was a case of circular logic.

    4. Re:Ellipse != Circle by gbutler69 · · Score: 1

      Ellipses don't have volume. They are an imaginary 2-D construct. Perhaps you mean "Ellipsoid"?

      --
      Over-the-top Response Guy! Giving "Over-the-Top Responses" since 1970.
    5. Re:Ellipse != Circle by techno-vampire · · Score: 2, Informative
      Who modded the parent "informative"?

      This is Slashdot, in case you hadn't noticed. Only on Slashdot is pointing out the trivially obvious considered "Informative."

      --
      Good, inexpensive web hosting
    6. Re:Ellipse != Circle by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And yet there's pi, right in the middle of the equation for circumference of an ellipse.

    7. Re:Ellipse != Circle by Kratisto · · Score: 1

      I can't wait for you to be modded informative for that.

      --
      Conscience is the inner voice which warns us that someone may be looking.
    8. Re:Ellipse != Circle by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And you can describe the location on an ellipse with angles (read up on the eccentric, true, and mean anomalies). Maybe we should celebrate pi day on June 1st ,or whenever the exact day we've gone through pi radians of our orbit.

      And the circumference of our nearly circular orbit is 2pi AU, so on or around June 1st we've also gone pi AU in path length.

    9. Re:Ellipse != Circle by Xtifr · · Score: 1

      Clearly it was a case of circular logic.

      I've always found it peculiar that circular logic is not a degenerate case of elliptical logic. :)

  9. Stupid by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This is stupid, who thought MONTH - DAY - YEAR is a reasonable date format? Do you frequently find yourself asking "Hmm, I wonder what month it is?" And always make people look in the center to find out the date? WTF

    It's like throwing away metric and using some crazy-ass divisible by 12 unit.

    1. Re:Stupid by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah it pisses me of this month before year thing, fucking Americans.

      How many Casio wristwatches out there are displaying month-day for people who DON'T use that retarded way of displaying the date?

    2. Re:Stupid by MobileTatsu-NJG · · Score: 2, Insightful

      This is stupid, who thought MONTH - DAY - YEAR is a reasonable date format?

      The person that noticed that we generally say "March 14th, 2010", so it's more intuitive.

      It's like throwing away metric and using some crazy-ass divisible by 12 unit.

      Oh please, it isn't done right where you are, either. It should be 2010-03-14 so it sorts chronologically and intuitively can't get the month or day mixed up. Your preference is simply different, not less stupid. This isn't one of those topics you can use to pose as one of the smarter people.

      --

      "I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)

    3. Re:Stupid by Cimexus · · Score: 1

      But we don't. Americans/Canadians say that. Everyone I know says "14 March" or "the 14th of March". I've heard the "but that's how you say it" argument for the US date format before, but it's simply untrue. Other English speaking countries generally say the date before the month (or, just the date ... "the 14th").

      And those accursed cheap electronics (like wristwatches and low-end VCRs and stuff) that ONLY display in month/day (with no year) are terribly annoying because if it's before the 12th of any month, you have no idea what you are actually looking at (obviously if you see 5/13 though you know it's displaying it in the US format).

      Having said that I agree that the system that makes the most sense is yyyy-mm-dd. Which is, in fact, the ISO standard date format (and the preferred way of representing dates in software, so that there's no ambiguity).

      But I think the reason the US system annoys the rest of us is not because it's 'crazy' but rather that it's inconsistent. At least day/month/year consistently goes from smallest to largest unit. But the US system is a bit confusing if you aren't used to reading it because it goes 'medium/small/large' unit size. Not smallest to largest or largest to smallest.

    4. Re:Stupid by Cimexus · · Score: 3, Informative

      Bad form replying to one's self but this is interesting: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Date.png

      The number of countries using the US system is pretty small. It's basically the US and a few random places like Palau and Micronesia.

      But - there are quite a few variations on date format, more than I thought :)

    5. Re:Stupid by GospelHead821 · · Score: 2, Funny

      Base 12 is an excellent base. Metric/decimal is okay but we're not monkeys anymore. Can't we please get over the fact that we have just 10 fingers? Base 12 makes it a lot easier to work with common fractions. Halves, quarters, AND thirds are all easy to calculate. Assuming you accept that the inch is no more or less arbitrary than the centimetre as a unit of measure, then in base 12, feet and yards become completely sensible. A great gross of yards (12^3 = 1728 yards = 5184 feet) is pretty close to today's arbitrary mile. 12-hour days make a lot more sense too. If I remember correctly (and I might not; I welcome corrections if this is wrong), we do it that way in the first place because our timekeeping system evolved from Babylonian timekeeping and the Babylonians used a base-12 number system.

      Of course, in base 12, pi is no longer 3.14159. It approximates to 3.18480. I wouldn't mind selecting a definition of pi day that frees us both from the Gregorian calendar AND from our monkey-finger numeric base.

      --
      Virtue finds and chooses the mean.
      Aristotle, Ethica Nichomachea
    6. Re:Stupid by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ...or Fahrenheit instead of Celsius ?
      Anyone knows that water freeze at 0 and boil at 100

    7. Re:Stupid by crazycheetah · · Score: 1

      Well, you could say, "The 14th day of the 3rd month of the year 2010." Which would translate to 14-3-2010. Just sayin'...

    8. Re:Stupid by BlackHawk-666 · · Score: 0, Flamebait

      What the fuck is an inch?

      --
      All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain.
    9. Re:Stupid by quacking+duck · · Score: 1

      I prefer writing yyyy-mm-dd, especially for anything programming-related.

      In regular writing, I'm fine with seeing dd-mm-yyyy. mmm dd, yyyy is still okay since there's no ambiguity about what which the day and month are, but this leads to the laziness that results in....

      mm-dd-yyyy or mm/dd/yyyy. Which are about the stupidest written conventions I've ever come across. Along with imperial measurements, why is the US hell-bent on foisting backwards systems on the rest of the world?

    10. Re:Stupid by Enokcc · · Score: 1

      It should be 2010-03-14 so it sorts chronologically and intuitively can't get the month or day mixed up

      Yes, the only ordering of the triple {day, month, year} that is a total order in Z^3 which corresponds the chronology is (year,month,day). So does year*10000+month*100+day in Z, a good reason to name anythings date sensitive this way on computer to keep things in order.

    11. Re:Stupid by sourcerror · · Score: 1

      Yay, Hungary wins again :)

      But the most annoying thing is when on cans of food you just see the numbers (2 digits for years) but there's no clue for format, and you have to guess.

    12. Re:Stupid by GospelHead821 · · Score: 1

      What is a metre? Traditionally, one ten millionth of a quarter of the circumference of the earth. Now, it is defined as the distance that light travels in a vacuum in 1/299,792,458 of a second. At some point, somebody has to make an arbitrary decision about how to define distance. So what is an inch? Who cares? If we must be pedantic, it's the distance that light travels in a vacuum in 10,000/76,147,284,332 of a second.

      --
      Virtue finds and chooses the mean.
      Aristotle, Ethica Nichomachea
    13. Re:Stupid by dcollins · · Score: 1

      "It's like throwing away metric and using some crazy-ass divisible by 12 unit."

      Or: Metric is like throwing out base 60 and using some unit that you can't divide evenly by 3, 4, or 6.

      --
      We know where leadership by an anti-intellectual "strongman" who scapegoats minorities and likes boisterous rallies goes
    14. Re:Stupid by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's the distance between your second and third knuckle on your index finger, duh!

    15. Re:Stupid by denzacar · · Score: 1

      Meter and the metric system are human attempts to bring some order into the chaos of the imperial system.
      As there is a single ruling body that determines the length of a meter they could just as well have had it twice as long it would make nearly no difference.
      It would still be more practical and more precise than the imperial system.

      Why is it more precise?
      Because it is determined by a single ruling body, because its properties can be based on unchangeable measurable properties of atomic particles AND artifacts created by the aforementioned ruling body AND certain aspects of the planet we live on, because its smallest unit is small enough that the differences in measurement of the aforementioned properties and artifacts are negligible in practical use.

      On the other hand, inch, foot, yard, mile (all those different flavors of it) are traditional and archaic SELF-DESCRIPTIVE units that have up until recently varied from village to village, let alone country to country.
      Kings and queens used to sign a document declaring "exactly" how long an inch or a foot was - but they've never used an actual "yardstick" to determine the actual length of any.
      Or a prototype standard if you like it more like that.
      Same with the pounds and those other units that come out to 1276.386 of some other unit.
      An inch is still called "a thumb" in many non English speaking countries - because that is what it was based on. Width of an average thumb.
      You know... like the foot was based on an actual human "foot".

      Why is it more practical?
      Cause it is simple. It is just increments of 10.
      1, 10, 1000, 1000000... or 10^-3, 10^-2, 10^1, 10^2, 10^3...
      Scale it up or down it is always the same. You just move the decimal point.
      Just try expressing something like 2.356 inches in yards or feet by just moving a decimal point.

      Also, another thing you can't do with pounds and inches.
      Make a cube that is exactly 10 centimeters (100 millimeters, 1 decimeter, 0.1 meter) long on each side.
      That cube will hold 1 kilogram of water. Which is also exactly 1 liter of water.
      Cool, right?
      Well, that is what you get when you actually take time to come up with a new measurement system that makes sense instead of just "determining" that it is "about that much".

      --
      Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
    16. Re:Stupid by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      A year ago i bought a Casio EX-S770 for 300 euro. It was defect in the summer, because anyhow came sand into the camera. I thought this was strange, because i was only near the beach. I took me 100 Euro to get it repaired, because casio didn't do it on guarantee. Two month ago, i got it back. Today, the next defect: the display is broken. Without a reason. Without display, the camera is mostly worthless. We will see, what casio says about this, and if the guarantee pays this time. I am only annoyed, because i spent so much for a camera, which is defect the second time this year. And now i will get annoyed by casio support, again. I would not pay another time for it.

    17. Re:Stupid by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      this is interesting: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Date.png

      Not surprisingly, that map shows that we Canucks are the most confused in the world. Typical, eh?

    18. Re:Stupid by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What the fuck is an inch?

      it's a little bigger the length of your dick. Which explains why you prefer micrometers.

    19. Re:Stupid by Chapter80 · · Score: 1

      What the fuck is an inch?

      Unzip and you'll find out.

      But you had to bring fucking into the discussion.

    20. Re:Stupid by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      a) month/day is better for the same reason ISO year/month/day is better.
      b) month/day/year comes from laziness and lack of foresight - "Today is March 14th. What's that? Oh, 2010. March 14th, 2010." or "The date... um... March 14th. Oh this is an official document; I'd better throw the year on."

      I think really what it comes down to is order of importance - the American system emerged from a more highly agricultural society where the month of the year is most important because it tells you what stage the crops are in, the day is next most important. The year is least important because one is pretty much like the next/

    21. Re:Stupid by Malc · · Score: 1

      Actually I'd argue that the accursed cheap electronics are that way because they were developed in Asia. They're not showing mm-dd-yyyy with the year missing, but rather yyyy-mm-dd with the year missing.

      Still bloody annoying and confusing for everywhere else in the world.

    22. Re:Stupid by cephus440 · · Score: 1

      Think like an OO programming language. First you select the namespace, then the class, then the member. Think of the internet, first you select WWW, then the site, then the top level domain. I argue that the correct date format should be year.month.day.hour.minute.second. Think about naming your directories by date, for instance, you want to sort all of the picture you took of your girlfriend from your cell phone. If you were to name the directories by month, day, year, you would group all of the March's together and when you open the picture of your girlfriend you could inadvertently open the image of your girlfriend last year... good luck explaining that one. BUT if you were to name the directories by year, month, day, then you'd be able to get more pictures :D

    23. Re:Stupid by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That only makes more sense with computers which automatically sort using the first digit first, so it provides proper sorting of filenames with dates in, otherwise it is more readable to put the day first.

    24. Re:Stupid by MobileTatsu-NJG · · Score: 1

      otherwise it is more readable to put the day first.

      Only if you're not looking at a list of dates sequentially. Otherwise, when you roll over to the next week, you've skipped a groove. Starting with the day is actually dumber if you're looking at anything outside of the scope of one month.

      It depends on what your priority is.

      --

      "I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)

    25. Re:Stupid by MobileTatsu-NJG · · Score: 1

      Okay I didn't preview when I should have.

      Otherwise, when you roll over to the next week...

      That should be 'next month', not week. I'm sorry for being confusing.

      --

      "I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)

  10. Math vs. practicality by Mathinker · · Score: 1

    As a mathematician, I understand Plant Kingdom's problem with making Mar-14 Pi Day (and even worse since it's not using a computer-friendly date format).

    And as a mathematician, I also understand that sometimes there is no way to push mathematical elegance over practical considerations. In this case, it's obvious that if we want to have a Pi Day which is looking to be at all known in popular circles, it absolutely has to be based on being a fixed day in the Gregorian calendar year (or at least as fixed as something like the US President's day --- the n-th particular-weekday in particular-month).

  11. Celebration by dandart · · Score: 1, Informative

    To celebrate, I'll be having pie for dinner.

  12. a French computer programmer? by short · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Calling Fabrice Bellard "a French computer programmer"? Is it a joke?

    1. Re:a French computer programmer? by mukund · · Score: 1

      Yeah even I thought the summary doesn't do justice to him. He found algorithmically faster ways to compute Pi. I doubt this was just to 'prove his efficient coding abilities.' He's someone to be honored for giving us LZEXE, FFMpeg and QEMU. The summary treats him as some random guy, which is weird.. this being Slashdot and all.

      --
      Banu
    2. Re:a French computer programmer? by mukund · · Score: 3, Informative

      OTOH, reading Bellard's FAQ on his latest result does seem like he was interested more in fast algorithms and not in Pi. So I stand corrected. Still.. he's not some random programmer to us. :P Following links from his FAQ, I found two cool books:

      --
      Banu
  13. What's the significance of 1/pi? by Saint+Stephen · · Score: 2, Interesting

    1/pi is not pi. It's like celebrating the third time something happened by doing something one third of the way through and then stopping!

    "When a circle's diameter is one unit, then the cirmcumference is pi units." [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pi]

    So if a year is "one unit", we should celebrate pi every 3.14 years or something.

    1. Re:What's the significance of 1/pi? by RAMMS+EIN · · Score: 1

      ``1/pi is not pi.''

      pi r square!

      No, pies are round!

      --
      Please correct me if I got my facts wrong.
    2. Re:What's the significance of 1/pi? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Or you could celebrate after going through pi radians (half of the orbit).

    3. Re:What's the significance of 1/pi? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The diameter of Earth's orbit is one unit. In 1/pi of the year, the Earth travels a distance equal to this diameter. That's the signifigance, it's using pi in terms of arc length.

    4. Re:What's the significance of 1/pi? by LordVader717 · · Score: 2, Informative

      For every pi proportioality the reciprocal relation is a 1/pi proportionality, so it's every bit a significant. For a near-circular Earth orbit 1/pi of a year is the time when the earth has passed the equivalent of the diameter of it's orbit and swept an area the size of of a rectangle made from it's major and minor axis.

  14. RE: yeah, okay by Anarchduke · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Oh Jesus. Really?

    Okay, I'm about to troll, but...

    First, do we really need a holiday for every fucking thing out there? Where the hell is dung beetle day? Aardwolf week? Permian Extinction Day?

    Secondly, you invested enough energy into worrying about WHICH day should be Pi day that you created a website over it?

    Finally, if Pi gets its own day, I think its entirely fair that 1.618 get its own celebration. Phi is easily as fascinating a number as Pi, so why didn't you get your panties in a twist over not having Phi day?

    Sometimes, you CAN be too much of a geek.

    --------------
    End of Troll.

    --
    who prays for Satan? Who in 18 centuries has had the humanity to pray for the 1 sinner that needed it most? ~Mark Twain
  15. Did he find a message? by wisebabo · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I understand that in the book "Contact" by Carl Sagan, when the scientists meets the aliens he asks them a question:

    Scientist: Do you believe in God?

    Aliens: Yes.

    (Astonished) Scientist: Really?! Why?

    Aliens: We have proof.

    Scientist: Proof?!!!

    Alien: Yes, when we decoded Pi to (a very large number) we found a Message...

    Of course this idea was exploited in a different way by the movie "Pi". (Sorry didn't see it either.). In any case, if Pi is truly Random (it is isn't it?) won't every possible message occur? Just like those monkeys with their typewriters (if you don't know what a typewriter is look it up).

    1. Re:Did he find a message? by pcolaman · · Score: 4, Funny

      What the fuck is a monkey?

    2. Re:Did he find a message? by jc42 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      In any case, if Pi is truly Random (it is isn't it?) won't every possible message occur?

      Hmmm ... You must be using an unusual definition of "random", which usually means that the value is unpredictable. Pi is the opposite of random. It's precisely defined and always has the same value for anyone who calculates it correctly. (Which leaves out the religious folks, but that's to be expected for anything requiring validity. ;-) Pi would even be the same in a different universe with different physical laws, because its value isn't dependent on anything physical.

      As for every message occurring, I think you're thinking of normal numbers. There is a conjecture that pi is normal, but it hasn't been proved. So far, statistics of the digits of pi are consistent with it being normal to as many digits as have been tested. A normal number does contain every possible message, in every possible encoding. If pi is normal, then so is e. [The proof is trivial for anyone who knows the well-known equation relating e and pi.]

      And yes, this mathematical (ab)use of the word "normal" is one of the silliest things that mathematicians have ever done. But there is a long tradition of such silly misuse of common words as mathematical terms.

      --
      Those who do study history are doomed to stand helplessly by while everyone else repeats it.
    3. Re:Did he find a message? by mrsurb · · Score: 1

      In "Contact" the conceit was that the message occurred much earlier than would be statistically expected. The protagonist found another "message" in a non-base-ten expansion which decoded to bitmap image of a circle. Circles within circles!

    4. Re:Did he find a message? by CrimsonAvenger · · Score: 0, Troll

      Pi would even be the same in a different universe with different physical laws, because its value isn't dependent on anything physical.

      Umm, no. Pi has different values in non-Euclidean geometries, depending on the curvature of the surface used in the particular non-Euclidean geometry in question.

      --

      "I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
    5. Re:Did he find a message? by wisebabo · · Score: 1

      Ok, you're right, I wasn't using the right definition of random. Thanks for telling me about "normal" numbers!

    6. Re:Did he find a message? by iris-n · · Score: 1

      No, it doesn't. What does have a different value is the ratio of a circumference to it's diameter, that can be grater than pi (hyperbolic surfaces), or smaller (spherical surfaces). But that ain't the definition of pi, 'cos even in a given surface of constant curvature, this value varies.

      --
      entropy happens
    7. Re:Did he find a message? by SoVeryTired · · Score: 1

      A little knowledge is a dangerous thing, and that "umm, no" comes across as a little arrogant.

      The ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter differs from Pi in a non-Euclidean geometry, but that's not to say that the value of Pi intrinsically depends on the geometry.
      The *definition* of Pi is the length of the circumference of a circle with diameter 1 in *in the Euclidean geometry*.

      We could just as easily take the definition of Pi to be the limit of the sequence
      4 (1 - 1/3 + 1/5 - 1/7 + 1/9 -...)
      with the terms specified in order of increasing denominator, since the sum is conditionally convergent. This is quite clearly a clean, non-geometrical definition which also doesn't depend on the base of the number system used.

      --
      Slashdot: news for Apple. Stuff that Apple.
    8. Re:Did he find a message? by skywire · · Score: 1

      It makes a great story, yet one requiring a large dose of suspension of disbelief, since we know that pi is not arbitrary, but logically necessary. Even God could not insert a message into pi.

      --
      Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.
    9. Re:Did he find a message? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And ~we~ don't live in a Euclidean universe, yet pi is still precisely pi. Go figure.

    10. Re:Did he find a message? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not random? Surely you'd never heard of Buffon's needle? ...

    11. Re:Did he find a message? by jc42 · · Score: 1

      Actually, I have heard of Buffon's needle. We might note that if one looks at the equations that turn up in probability and statistics, one sees a lot of instances of pi (and e).

      Pi might have been originally defined in terms of the diameter and circumference of a circle (in the Euclidean plane), but that's not the only way it can be defined. Any of the many other equations containing a related "magic number" would do as well. The Euclidean circle is just one of the simplest things that uses this number, understandable by people with very primitive technology.

      We can expect that any other intelligent species in this universe (or any other) that develops technology will also discover pi. They may use the ratio of a circle's circumference to its radius. They may (and mostly will) count using a different numeric base. Very few of them will call it "pi". But they'll use a closely related number that's a simple multiple of our pi. They'll need it for the same reasons we do. And similarly for e.

      --
      Those who do study history are doomed to stand helplessly by while everyone else repeats it.
    12. Re:Did he find a message? by epine · · Score: 1

      Yes, I've seen those decodings. In base 8 it's a glowing testament to the crystalline clarity of the signal/noise ratio of the future universe when it cools to micro-degrees Kelvin. Decoded in base 6, it's a screech of satanic positrons travelling backward in time to the original inferno.

      Decoded in base seven, it contains the message "these digits intentionally left blank".

  16. new date... by TheSHAD0W · · Score: 1

    I vote for July 22nd.

  17. Sponsored by GLaDOS by lennier1 · · Score: 1

    We all know the Pi is a lie. ;)

  18. Pi *Researcher* by wiredlogic · · Score: 1

    What exactly is there to research about pi? Its digits are random. They change simply by switching to a different base so no pattern can be truly meaningful just an artifact of the chosen representation.

    --
    I am becoming gerund, destroyer of verbs.
    1. Re:Pi *Researcher* by mrsquid0 · · Score: 1

      It is primarily a way to test computational algorithms.

      --
      Just because you are paranoid does not mean that no-one is out to get you.
    2. Re:Pi *Researcher* by iris-n · · Score: 1

      No, they are perfectly deterministic.

      To calculate the numerical value of the digits I could understand as useless, but there are plenty of properties that are basis-independent, like it's irrationality, transcendence and normality.

      Also, there are some quite beautiful representations, look for the continued fractions one.

      --
      entropy happens
    3. Re:Pi *Researcher* by SoVeryTired · · Score: 1

      Well, it's still an unsolved problem as to whether Pi is "random" (that is, whether it's a Normal number in base 10. Even if it is, it may not be normal in another base.

      --
      Slashdot: news for Apple. Stuff that Apple.
  19. Assoc Prof Daisuke Takahashi by strongpassword · · Score: 1

    The prof is also a pretty mean ice skater (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daisuke_Takahashi) I'm sure he runs rings around his competition (nudge nudge).

  20. Re: yeah, okay by renderitchaos · · Score: 1

    Phi Day - Cool, but when will we celebrate it?

    I'm thinking we can mount a 3 day celebration from January 6th through January 8th.

    Who's with me?

    I'll start putting together a website...

  21. Re: yeah, okay by mrsurb · · Score: 1

    I'm assuming that the celebrations will involve lots of roots? A phi day without roots would be irrational. Completely absurd. Uh...

  22. hognoxious by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This is america hognoxious. we do the date the right way

  23. Call me back end of April by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Most of the world use DD.MM.YYYY. Therefore PI day is the 31st April.

    1. Re:Call me back end of April by Celarent+Darii · · Score: 1

      Thirty days hath September, April June and November.
      All the rest have thirty-one...

      Thus, sadly, in a sane dating system, we could never have a 31.4 :(

      No choice but to be American for Pi day unfortunately :(

  24. 2010-03-14 per ISO 8601 by tepples · · Score: 1

    According to ISO 8601, today is 2010-03-14. Feel free to celebrate the other Pi Day about four months later when it'll be 22/7 in your locale.

  25. (22.0/7) by tepples · · Score: 1
    If that's C or C++, you need to wrap the right side of a #define statement in parentheses. Otherwise, the / operator will interact with operator precedence in ways that might surprise you or (more importantly) whoever has to maintain your code after you have moved on. In addition, C and C++ use truncating division when both operands are integers. This is what you probably meant:

    #define PI_VALUE (22.0/7)

    1. Re:(22.0/7) by keeboo · · Score: 1

      Well, GP was intended as a joke, not as useable code.
      Still, it may be a good idea you posted that, in case someone tries something like that expecting a certain result.

      In the case of PI, I would rather suggest checking if the includes define such constant instead, and otherwise fall back to a proper PI define.

  26. I think not quite right. by gbutler69 · · Score: 1

    I seem to recall that the Babylonians used a base-60 system (which subsumes base-12 within it). The prime factors of base-60 are: 2, 2, 3, 5 (or easily 3,4,5) which matches up really nice with a 3,4,5 triangle for example.

    --
    Over-the-top Response Guy! Giving "Over-the-Top Responses" since 1970.
  27. Efficient coding abilities? by beatsme · · Score: 1

    Maybe I'm missing something here, but if the point is to calculate more digits than the last guy, can't the algorithm (efficient or not) just run for a longer time?

    1. Re:Efficient coding abilities? by Rockoon · · Score: 2, Informative

      Yes and No.

      If the doubling time of computational power is N hours (a bastardization of Moore's law, approximately 17500 hours.. or two years), then it never makes sense to start a calculation that will take more than 2N hours.

      For easy visualization of this concept, lets suppose you have a program that will take 6 years to complete if run on todays fastest hardware, and you begin it March 14th, 2010 .. It is thus scheduled to complete computation on March 14th, 2016.

      But you have an adversary who wants to beat you to the punch and announce the programs output before you do. He can wait until March 14th, 2012, exactly two years later than your start date, and at that time buy the fastest hardware of that time period. On March 14th, 2014 his program will overtake yours, and it will finish on March 14th, 2015.

      He beat you by 1 year even though he started 2 years later than you did. As you see, it is a futile waste to perform such very long calculations as long as moore's law holds.

      A similar concept was introduced to me in a space-ship through experiment. Humanity builds its first set of inter-galactic space ships which can achieve 50% the speed of light, and these ships set off to explore the universe. Surprisingly those first explorers all arive at stars populated by human beings, humans who themselves set off exploring AFTER they did, because inter-galactic drives improved to 98% the speed of light after only a few more years of development.

      --
      "His name was James Damore."
    2. Re:Efficient coding abilities? by nsayer · · Score: 1

      Of course, if you never start the computation at all then you never get results.

      The terminating condition is knowing when Moore's law will fail.... far enough in advance to know when it is optimal to begin computation.

    3. Re:Efficient coding abilities? by Rockoon · · Score: 1

      Of course, if you never start the computation at all then you never get results. The terminating condition is knowing when Moore's law will fail.... far enough in advance to know when it is optimal to begin computation.

      Sure..

      AFAIK, nobody has yet done any 4+ year computations on silicon, or 2+ year computations for that matter. The record holder for Pi is I believe 2.7 trillion digits and took 131 days, and this wasnt even a super computer.

      --
      "His name was James Damore."
  28. Takahashi by Subm · · Score: 1

    If Professor Takahashi uses the Takahashi Method to present his results, it will be the longest presentation ever -- 2.5 trillion slides!

  29. Why 1/pi? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I don't understand why one would choose 2 radians (which gives one pi'th of the orbit) as opposed to the much simpler and more obvious pi radians (one half of the orbit). Does that make it too simple? Or is it just the fact that we already celebrate that day?

    1. Re:Why 1/pi? by Nursie · · Score: 1

      Came here looking for radians. Now disappointed that they're only mentioned this far down and by and AC.

      One "pi-th" is 2 radians.

  30. historical precedent for Pi day celebration by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "Oh, a wise guy, eh? Yuck-yuck-yuck".

  31. I just want to celebrate "i" day by spineboy · · Score: 1

    Except I don't know when. I could celebrate i^2 day, but then it would always be yesterday , and I'd miss it.

    --
    ..........FULL STOP.
    1. Re:I just want to celebrate "i" day by Thinboy00 · · Score: 1

      What about e^(i pi)+1 day? That would always be today.

      --
      $ make available
  32. And now our Pi Day anthem! by RevWaldo · · Score: 1

    C'mon, you know the words, er, numbers!

    pi - Kate Bush

    This version only takes six minutes to sing. The extended version? You don't even want to know.

    --
    Prisencolinensinainciusol. Ol Rait!
  33. Party Time??? by hyades1 · · Score: 1

    I hope they're already planning for a really, really big Pi Day blow-out in 2016.

    --
    I've calculated my velocity with such exquisite precision that I have no idea where I am.
  34. Re: yeah, okay by zippthorne · · Score: 1

    April 15, in the US, if my pronunciation is correct.

    --
    Can you be Even More Awesome?!
  35. You just got pwnd by Captain Literal. by Hognoxious · · Score: 2, Funny

    I've got 0 through 9 here on my keyboard, I'd have thought with a trivial bit of rearrangement they'd just about do it.

    --
    Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
  36. PI IS EXACTLY 3!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    PI IS EXACTLY 3!!!

  37. ISO too by Xtifr · · Score: 1

    idiot american system of month.day instead of day.month

    Actually, since we're ignoring year, the ISO 8601 format (yyyy-mm-dd) makes this Pi Day too--and given that there is an ISO date format, and given that it solves the sorting problem so thoroughly, I'd say that a format which uses day.month is, at best, less stupid. But still pretty stupid.

  38. Oh boy... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    And here I thought everybody was celebrating 'Pee Day'...
    No wonder that party of mine stank! (if you know what I mean)

    In the beginning everything went quite fluid, though

  39. While we're at it... by hallux.sinister · · Score: 1

    I propose February 31st, every year, be known henceforth as "Square Root of Negative One Day," or maybe "iDay" (which will be great for all those Apple fans out there). This new holiday will be observed March 3rd, or March 2nd in a Leap Year. Celebrations should focus principally on complex mathematics, but also on honest politicians, Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, and temporary taxes.
    ~Hal

  40. On a completely unrelated geeky note: by el3mentary · · Score: 1

    It is also Albert Einstein's 131st Birthday today, pity he's dead really.

    --
    I reject your reality and substitute my own.
  41. Why are we celebrating an inadequate number ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    2 pi would probably make really much more sense !

    http://www.math.utah.edu/~palais/pi.html
    http://www.math.utah.edu/%7Epalais/pi.pdf

    So I will wait until the 28^th of June

  42. 1/pi of the orbit? shwa? by nsayer · · Score: 1

    Um, if you wanted to use a circle as a metaphor for the year, then 2 pi radians would be a full circle, so wouldn't it make more sense to make it the day half way through the year (pi radians)?

  43. Re: yeah, okay by RivenAleem · · Score: 1

    Finally, if Pi gets its own day, I think its entirely fair that 1.618 get its own celebration. Phi is easily as fascinating a number as Pi, so why didn't you get your panties in a twist over not having Phi day?

    Sometimes, you CAN be too much of a geek.

    Lets celebrate this day with Themed Showers.

  44. Super Mega Pi Day Coming Soon by manlygeek · · Score: 1

    I'm waiting for the magic Pi Day of All Pi Day's in this millenium... that's right March 14, 2015 (3.1415)!

    --
    Be More, Be Manly, The Manly Geek Ubergeek Extraordinaire Blogger: www.manlygeek.com/blog Podcaster: podcast.man
  45. No it isn't. by DaVince21 · · Score: 1

    It was Keen Day.

    --
    I am not devoid of humor.
  46. This epoch? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Sun, 21 Jul 2069 00:37:33 GMT