As I am the self proclaimed* pi expert blogger I thought I should comment on the latest US attempt to take over the world.
Today is world pi day if you happen to use the American date format (mm/dd) when 3.14 becomes 3/14 which is March 14th.
But what if you use a different date format. With a format of dd/mm we would be celebrating pi day on 31/4 or 31st April. But there are only 30 days in April which means we should celebrate world pi day on 1st May instead (30th April + 1).
US Pi Day: 14th March
Rest of the World Pi Day: 1st May
*I wrote about Kate Bush and the mistake in her pi song where she misses out a block of 22 digits in the middle of her ode to this famous number.
Kate Bush Pi: (missing digits in grey) 3.
1415926535 8979323846 2643383279 5028841971 6939937510
5820974944 5923078164 0628620899 8628034825 3421170679
8214808651 3282306647 0938446095 5058223...
Correct Pi: 3.
1415926535 8979323846 2643383279 5028841971 6939937510
5820974944 5923078164 0628620899 8628034825 3421170679
8214808651 3282306647 0938446095 5058223
I was mentioned in the Independent yesterday and was described as a "sad obsessive type":
Ms Bush sings each number of Pi to 150 decimal places - or at least that was her claim until a rather sad obsessive type decided to check each digit.
The Independent - The life of pi - 13 March 2006
I prefer the Telegraph version where I am described in a much more positive light:
He was right to point out Kate Bush's error, particularly as she seems to be trying to capture the essence of being a mathematician. Invigorated by McEvoy's pedantry, I thought I would take a look at the lyrics of some Christmas classics.
Daily Telegraph - Curse of a festive pedant - 20 Dec 2005
The Guardian also mentions me in passing:
Before this starts sounding like a maths lesson, we should point out that the number is rooted in plenty of popular culture. Kate Bush sang the first 137 digits in a song, titled π, on her recent album, Aerial (although some people accuse her of getting the numbers wrong); Carl Sagan wrote about the possibility of findig a fingerprint of God in a version of pi; and Professor Frink (of The Simpsons fame) shouts "pi is exactly 3" to get the attention of a bunch of scientists.
Guardian Blog - Pi-eyed - 14 March 2006
I was also mentioned (though not by name) on the Today programme on Radio 4 this morning. You can also listen to an excellent show about pi called 5 Numbers by Simon Singh which was first broadcast in 2002.
I'll add my stupid, uninformed post: The cut of the 22 digits of Pi appears to me to be an editing of the song, where a section was cut out, because at the point Pi is "sliced" there is a discontinuity in rhythm. There's a "3 against 2" rhythm going most of the time and then suddenly it drops one of the triplet eighths, I think. Anyway, it's not a clean joining, and if you were moving along with the rhythm you'd be off by an eighth, at least, if you didn't know it was coming. So, I'm guessing she sang 150 digits, but 22 were cut out with the rest of the music.
Maybe this was mentioned before.
Posted by: Rob Reed | August 11, 2006 at 09:32 PM
Really "American Pi Day" has a nicer ring to it.
Posted by: Erik | June 03, 2006 at 04:38 PM
So, is May 1st the common Pi Day, or is it January 3rd, at 4:15 pm (3/1, 4:15)? I hadn't heard about the May date before.
Although the Pi Day many observe today is based on the U.S. date form, here is a fun article on How To Celebrate Pi Day. Also, get a pi t-shirt to sport around for the occassion.
Posted by: Josh | March 15, 2006 at 12:38 AM
Alternately, those who use the date/month system could celebrate Pi Approximation Day on the 22nd of July...
Posted by: Casey | March 14, 2006 at 10:01 PM