Trip to Europe deprives students of Pi Day
Courtesy of www.amazon.com
“The greatest person in the world” told me today that, since I will be travelling to Europe for spring break, I will not be experiencing Pi Day this year.
In the United States, our dates are formatted MM/DD. Therefore, March 14 would be written as 3/14, the first three digits of Pi. But, since I will be in Europe, where dates are written DD/MM, March 14 actually holds little significance. Pi Day in Europe would have to fall on 3/14 corresponding with the third of the 14th month, which is obviously impossible. Therefore, Europe has its own “Pi Approximation Day” falling on July 22, or 22/7.
Sadly, I wont be in Europe for Pi Approximation Day either.
However, there are apparently other Pi Days other than Pi Day and Pi Approximation Day. For instance, the Earth will have traveled two radians of its orbit by April 26. If you take the entire orbit and divide it by the distance traveled you get Pi. I suppose Pi Day will be falling on April 26 for me.
On a side note, I recommend reading A History of Pi by Petr Beckmann.
No related posts.
February 16th, 2009 at 3:13 am
Did you send one of these to Richard in Alabama?
February 16th, 2009 at 3:25 am
I just sent one to him.
April 20th, 2009 at 11:23 am
You can always watch the movie!
Pi: Faith in Chaos(1998) R
This jarring black-and-white brain-bender is a haunting examination of science — and obsession. Written and directed by Darren Aronofsky (Requiem for a Dream), Pi: Faith in Chaos tells the story of a haunted, fragile mathematical genius (Sean Gullette) on the trail of a 216-digit number hidden in Pi that could unlock the secrets of the stock market … and the universe