Here's a slice of π

March 14, 2007 5:22 AM

Celebrate π. Sing about π. Wear π. Learn the digits of π. Watch the wonder of π. Be vexed by the implications of π. Get slightly embarrassed for π. Give all your love to π. Happy Pi Day. Nerds rule!
posted by moonbird (57 comments total)

Incidentally, this thread number can be found within the first 100,000 digits of π.
posted by moonbird at 5:25 AM on March 14, 2007

'cause today is 3.14 if your calendar happens to work that way.
posted by furtive at 5:26 AM on March 14, 2007

I cornered the cook at my chow hall to make sure they had pie today.

I had 3.14 pieces of it.

mmmmm, blueberry...
posted by Dagobert at 5:33 AM on March 14, 2007

Reading this post was like getting a pi in the face.
posted by papercake at 5:35 AM on March 14, 2007

MIT sells a T-shirt that reads, "Cutie π."
posted by cribcage at 5:42 AM on March 14, 2007

I remember from HS days the joke about the formula for the area of a circle:

Pie are square?
No, pie are not square.
Pie are round.
Cornbread are square.
posted by pax digita at 5:44 AM on March 14, 2007 [2 favorites]

furtive: "'cause today is 3.14 if your calendar happens to work that way."

You furriners are better off waiting until 22/7 and then making your own FPP at that time. It's more accurate, anyhow. [self-link]
posted by Plutor at 5:45 AM on March 14, 2007

It is terribly confusing to write dates as month.day.year. It just seems so counterintuitive; furthermore, it makes it perpetually ambiguous whenever a date is expressed in numerical form and one number is not greater than twelve.
posted by sindark at 5:45 AM on March 14, 2007

It is terribly confusing to write dates as day.month.year. It just seems so counterintuitive; furthermore, it makes it perpetually ambiguous whenever a date is expressed in numerical form and one number is not greater than twelve.
posted by MtDewd at 5:52 AM on March 14, 2007 [2 favorites]

pi is overrated; 2 pi i should have gotten the glory.
posted by escabeche at 5:56 AM on March 14, 2007

Dates a most properly expressed as year-month-day, which puts the most significant figures on the left, where they belong. That makes today 2007-03-14...and there's pi!
posted by DU at 5:58 AM on March 14, 2007

Freaky. Your first link, on the Missouri Botanical Gardens website, is where I'm going after work, and I took MEGS classes as a kid.
posted by notsnot at 5:58 AM on March 14, 2007

notsnot: pi as divination tool
posted by moonbird at 6:19 AM on March 14, 2007

Does Hallmark have a card for this?
posted by three blind mice at 6:19 AM on March 14, 2007

Is this where I insert a link to my favourite Weebl episode, or is that no longer the done thing?
posted by TheDonF at 6:23 AM on March 14, 2007

Geeks my ass. Where the hell were you on February 7th?
posted by eriko at 6:29 AM on March 14, 2007 [3 favorites]

I'm dismayed that most online base-conversion utilities don't go above 36 (or in a few rare cases 64). I was hoping to throw 59428 in front of a truck and see what happened.

Brief thoughts on date formats from Language Log.
posted by cortex at 6:34 AM on March 14, 2007 [1 favorite]

You don't want to eat 3.14 slices of pie on π day. You really want to eat half a pie, which is π radians.
posted by mkb at 6:41 AM on March 14, 2007 [1 favorite]

Geeks my ass. Where the hell were you on February 7th?

What's the significance of 2.07? (Or perhaps you were thinking of February 71st?)
posted by nzero at 6:42 AM on March 14, 2007

*marks February 718281828459045th on his calendar*
posted by Plutor at 6:45 AM on March 14, 2007

e
posted by contessa at 6:46 AM on March 14, 2007

I bought a pie for my office. Amazingly, its circumference is its diameter multiplied by π!
posted by Faint of Butt at 6:48 AM on March 14, 2007

Metafilter threads with 314 comments.
posted by Pastabagel at 7:08 AM on March 14, 2007

We shoulda celebrated on March 14, 1592!
posted by Lord Kinbote at 7:09 AM on March 14, 2007

We shoulda celebrated on March 14, 1592!
posted by Lord Kinbote at 10:09 AM EST on March 14

We did. You missed it. It was awesome. We had pie.

Anyhoo, does anyone know of a formula that relates e, pi, and phi (the golden ratio)?

I seem to recall something about a brick, but the google it does nothing...
posted by Pastabagel at 7:13 AM on March 14, 2007

Play pi.
posted by owhydididoit at 7:14 AM on March 14, 2007

Ugh, never mind, I found it.

The ratio of the surface area of a brick with sides of lengths 1, Phi=1·61803... and phi=1/Phi=0·61803 and the bounding sphere that surrounds it is Phi/pi.
posted by Pastabagel at 7:18 AM on March 14, 2007

And now I realize that my earlier comment above links the same thread twice, which means there is only one thread with 314 comments. Why does google hate me?
posted by Pastabagel at 7:21 AM on March 14, 2007

Thread 31415
posted by Faint of Butt at 7:25 AM on March 14, 2007

By the way, it's also Dr. Einstein's birthday. Happy Birthday, Albert!
posted by 314/ at 7:33 AM on March 14, 2007

March has the best unholidays.

Army Day: 3/4
Pi Day: 3/14
Ides of March: 3/15

So much nerdly snickering!
posted by robocop is bleeding at 8:02 AM on March 14, 2007

Pi recipes.
posted by lukemeister at 8:07 AM on March 14, 2007

Your favorite date format sucks.
posted by MtDewd at 8:08 AM on March 14, 2007

Alas, nothing notable seems to have happened on March 14 in 1592. But it was a Saturday. Surely somebody ate pie that day.
posted by languagehat at 8:11 AM on March 14, 2007 [1 favorite]

*marks February 718281828459045th on his calendar*

Haha. How about July 19?
posted by nzero at 8:21 AM on March 14, 2007

I made a hasty, printable greeting card, if there's anyone you want to render uncomfortable with your nerdly enthusiasms.
posted by everichon at 8:22 AM on March 14, 2007

When come back, bring Π.
posted by Benny Andajetz at 8:33 AM on March 14, 2007

March has the best unholidays.

Yesterday was pretty 13/3/7 too.
posted by CynicalKnight at 8:55 AM on March 14, 2007 [3 favorites]

pi is exactly three!
posted by Mister_A at 9:03 AM on March 14, 2007

is Π intentionally flipped horizontally on the greeting card? I printed it so I can be creepy stalker guy and then noticed that little feature.
posted by horseblind at 9:14 AM on March 14, 2007

is Π intentionally flipped horizontally on the greeting card?

Ook, didn't notice that. I am handing in my pocket protector and sliderule.
posted by everichon at 9:16 AM on March 14, 2007

Maybe I should just bake her some Π.
posted by horseblind at 9:30 AM on March 14, 2007

btw, I really do like the card anyway. Not that you needed my approval. (just sayin...)
posted by horseblind at 9:43 AM on March 14, 2007

Mmmm... pi.
posted by ObscureReferenceMan at 9:46 AM on March 14, 2007

Two people in my office showed up wearing PI t-shirts today and because of this posting in Mefi, I didn't have to ask them why.
posted by octothorpe at 10:07 AM on March 14, 2007

When I was a little kid, my mother told me not to stare into the sun...
posted by malocchio at 10:08 AM on March 14, 2007

Alas, nothing notable seems to have happened on March 14 in 1592.
Π was important to the feudal lords of the day - for example, to establish properly-sized living quarters for their servants. How else, after all, are you going to compute a serf's area?
posted by Wolfdog at 10:18 AM on March 14, 2007 [2 favorites]

I used to work at a place where they had an annual party celebrating this. I only showed up for the round foods. Yum! Free pie!
posted by miss lynnster at 10:27 AM on March 14, 2007

In City of Heroes, you can pick any greek alphabet letter to put on your character's chest... except for pi. I've yet to figure out the why behind it. Maybe someone owns the copyright on it, cuz you can't put a bat on your chest either.
posted by ZachsMind at 10:49 AM on March 14, 2007

I posted an AskMe question about this before but, when I was in sixth grade, we had to memorize 52 digits of pi. It was one of the class requirements. I have no idea why our teacher wanted us to do this. In any case, I still remember and can recite 25 digits, a skill I find remarkably useful in day to day situations.
posted by inconsequentialist at 12:06 PM on March 14, 2007

I get so fucking tired of people pronouncing it wrong.

It's not pronounced "pie," you douchebags. It's "pee." It's a Greek letter. It's not that fucking hard.
posted by koeselitz at 3:37 PM on March 14, 2007

papercake: "Reading this post was like getting a pi in the face."

Now that's fairly disgusting.
posted by koeselitz at 3:39 PM on March 14, 2007

It's not pronounced "pie," you douchebags. It's "pee."

Aw, go beg a question.
posted by cribcage at 3:59 PM on March 14, 2007 [1 favorite]

mmm.... pee....
oh, I mean mmmm... pie.
posted by Green Eyed Monster at 4:09 PM on March 14, 2007 [1 favorite]

It's not pronounced "pie," you douchebags. It's "pee."

I think it is now your civic duty to do some Wikipedia editing. To deliver us from douchebaggery.
posted by owhydididoit at 4:53 PM on March 14, 2007

I'll wait for July 22nd, thanks.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 6:14 PM on March 14, 2007

Apparently, there's also a pi cologne. I wonder what, exactly, math smells like.

Perhaps it's best not to know.
posted by grapefruitmoon at 10:50 PM on March 14, 2007