Just a reminder for all the nerds, misfits, losers, math students and fans of Big Bang Theory – you’ll want to have the right atire and at 1:59 tomorrow be ready to mark the occasion of Pi Day.
I’m not sure what one does on such an occasion, but apparently it is not to be missed.
This is when all the nerds, misfits, losers, math students and fans are hit by cream “pi”es!
And who would object if its the ‘girl next door’ hurling the cream “pi”es?
And the “AUTHOR” of the Big Bang Theory is?
Cheers
Hans-Christian Georg Rupprecht, Commander in Chief
1st Saint Nicolaas Army
Army Group “True North”
I think the producer of The Big Bang Theory is some guy named Chaim.
The bigger nerd holiday to celebrate should have been Microsoft New Year, simply because there are more computer programmers than there are mathematicians.
That was July 6, 2009, 40,000 days since “Day 0” (December 31, 1899) in Visual Basic, which has been the world’s most-used programming language.
A local software company here had a big barbecue. I was surprised it didn’t get more press. Don’t bother waiting for the next one, though, it will be in the year 2026.
I should have added for the non-initiates, dates in Visual Basic, in Microsoft SQL Server (world’s most commonly used relational database) and in Microsoft Excel are stored as a number. So July 6, 2009 is 40,000. Today, March 13, 2011, is 40615.
And for the true professionals, yes, SQL Server is one day different from Visual Basic.
My alma mater celebrates by giving out free slices of pie at 1:59 pm.
Incidentally, Rick, every computer programmer *is* a mathematician, whether they realize it or not.
Big Bang Theory is the only TV sitcom I’ve habitually watched in over ten years. The cliché of the idiot husband with the contrastingly wise wife theme which plagued sitcoms for as long as I can remember made me turn them all off up to now.
Be there or R squared.
I guess that gives me an excuse to crack open the bottle of champagne I put into the fridge for the only palidromic date this year (when expressed in ddmmyyyy format) which I forgot about.
Pi day quickly leads to the dispute over date formats as I think Pi day should be on 3-January. OTOH, I’ll set aside my dislike for the mm/dd format for one night to celebrate with geeks around the world. For sorting by date, the yyyymmdd makes the most sense, and in this format 2-Nov is palindromic this year.
I’m well acquainted with 31/12/1899 as this date kept coming up constantly until I found the offending routine that cleared the date/time variable in a record keeping program I use daily (written in VB). The VB date/time format is yet another example of M$ bloatware taking 8 bytes to store what Apple did in 4 bytes on the Mac (IIRC the Mac time is seconds since 1/1/1903). Why M$ picked 1899 as their start year is a mystery to me. The structure of the date/time record is 4 bytes for the date and 4 bytes for the time. I suppose there are some applications which need the time at 20 microsecond precision but when you’ve got a range of 11,758,979 years for your date variable, starting 10,000 years in the past would have been more reasonable than 1899.
Wish I got Big Bang Theory on the 1 snowy broadcast channel I have access to, but I think I’ll just buy the series on DVD so I can watch it without commercials.
Mmmmmmm, pie.
How about dancing in a circle while sacrificing a sacred round item to Pi. Pizza?
I am a complete nerd so am hoping these questions are not silly. Since I was first aware of the concept of pi some 55 years ago, I have wondered if there is a reason that the value of pi is not a whole number. Would it be a whole number in a different number system…ie not based on 10. And finally, if pi does not have an exact value, could the fabric of the universe have a tear in it somewhere because the edges can’t meet?
The complexity of Pi is purely artificial and is designed to scare away social science and humanities majors from clogging up math and science courses.
So, how does one bake a pi?
I mean what number do you divide by what number to get pi?
Or is the recipe more complicated?
the accuracy of pi, the scope of the number, exceeds by some measure (I lack the mathematics of a better term) all quantum measurement. distance, time, mass, energy, it’s ALL quantum. you do actually get to a distance so short it is indivisible. the quantum clock ticks permit movement (and all change) because in that quantum ‘moment’ that quantum object is in 2 places at the same time. likewise the next and the next, just usually 1 of the 2 a different place each time.
when will we find out the total truth about pi?
“And finally, if pi does not have an exact value, could the fabric of the universe have a tear in it somewhere because the edges can’t meet? “
A circle of infinite diameter is a straight line, so maybe not all circles need be closed anyhow. 😉
Beagle – on the run now – can’t provide the link – check YouTube for Daniel Tammett – a savant who doesn’t have any of the debilitating behavioral associations. He’s the guy who recited digits of pi for hours – for him it’s like driving over a landscape. Very cool
Part I
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbASOcqc1Ss&sns=em
Why is the relationship between circumference and diameter such a pain in the π
With some of the questions about pi I guess there’s not much use trotting out Euler’s Identity:
e^(i*pi) = -1
just one of the most beautiful equations in mathematics.
You could create a number system based on pi, but then pi would be the only simple number in that number system. Interesting how irrational and transcendental numbers flow from very simple geometric relations; the length of the hypotenuse of a right angle triangle with sides of length 1 and pi from the relationship of the circumference and area of a circle to its radius.
I have to get to bed early tonight so 1:59 is a bit too late to party so I’ll think about celebrating after 15:92 (which works out to 16:32) and, since I don’t change over to DST, means I’ll be finished work at that point.
Yeah well….according to a modern parable…the meaning of life is…….42.
BTW this day is Albert Einstein’s birthday..1879.
I really should have thought of that myself, loki, but I don’t really run in Euler circles…