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Pi Day and an Interview With a Pi Researcher
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."
Don't forget it's also mother's day. And nobody makes better pi than mom. /duck
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
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.
What the fuck is a monkey?
Clearly it was a case of circular logic.
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
Don't you know "e" is illegal in most countries?
In Indiana, it's celebrated on March 2.
Pi day is irrational, but at least it's real.
Can you be Even More Awesome?!
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."
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.
It's also nearly my birthday, so another reason to celebrate. :-)
Surely you mean approximately your birthday?