Today was Pi day... Why was it Pi day? Well, Pi can be approximated as 3.14 and the date is March 14th, or 3/14, hence Pi day. But is it Pi day in the UK where today is not 3/14 but 14/3? A resounding NO!
In the UK the nerdy math teachers (cousins of course) celebrate Pi approximation day, 22 of July, rather 22/7. In some ways that makes more sense since the fractional equivalent of 3.14 is 22/7 and the use of the slash in the date convention matches the use of the slash to represent division.
Today, March 14th, however, is also Albert Einstein's birthday, a nice geeky coincidence.
Happily, I was teaching math today, March 14th, at 1:59pm, and at the 26th second we cheered very loudly! We celebrated Pi day with precision to the 10 millionths place (3.1415926...)! The ensuing discussion revolved around how the irrational constant, when thought of with units of time, must largely exist between the 26th and 27th second and due to the infinite divisibility of time and the random repeating nature of pi and thus one can celebrate Pi day with infinite precision.
Personally, I've become a tau man myself, so there was a fair amount of discussion of tau, particuarly the pi vs. tau comparison of the Feynman point (look it up).
All in all a good day.
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