Talk:Pi Day

I removed the statement that a more accurate pi day would be "March 4th at 9:20:41 AM, which is 0.141592653589 into the 3rd month (March)." It seems rather out of place where it was at, I was thinking tha making a list of possible days that pi is celebrated would be a better location, or within a sentence in the main section? I also fixed User:MoogleCrusader's link below, it had some crazy-go-nuts html stuck in it. --TSD

• So how about reorganizing it instead of just removing it entirely? Better disorganized info than no info, IMO. --Luke-Jr (talk) 01:37, 10 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

is it just me, or are all of the references on the pi day page all deleted by the site referenced or need a paid subscription?

none of the references work. would somebody please fix this? User:MoogleCrusader 22:54, 26 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

...get a life

Are you sure about this?
Back home, we always celebrate Pi Approximation Day on April 26th. This is the day on which the planet Earth completes approximately 2 Astronomical units' worth of its annual orbit, in other words orbit / part travelled = pi.

-)

A better Pi day would be 31 April.ping 09:09, 23 Oct 2003 (UTC)

I've added the first one to the article, what about April 31st, why that date? --Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason 01:36, 2004 Jul 23 (UTC)

There is no 31 April. Angela. 18:58, Jul 23, 2004 (UTC)

In many places, the standard format for writing dates is day/month/yeay, not moneth/day/year. In the d/m/y format, April 31st is 31/4, while March 14th is 14/3. Angela's observation is there is no 31st April is, of course, mere pedantry :-) Oh, and happy Pi Day! 82.33.127.78 08:49, 14 Mar 2005 (UTC)

"the day on which planet Earth completes two Astronomical units' worth of its annual orbit: on this day the total length of Earth's orbit, divided by the length already traveled, equals π (that is, the Earth has travelled one radian in its orbit)."

Shouldn't that be two radians (two AU = two radians)?

Yes. I have changed this.

Now, would anyone care to figure out when Ultimate Pi Day would be in the (say) Islamic calendar?  :-) —Dah31 01:22, 12 October 2005 (UTC)[reply]

It should be two radians, but if that got changed, it must have been reverted. I don't really see what's special about two radians compared to, say, one radian. I changed the date[1] to reflect that, since then I could also remove the blurb about leap years, simplifying things a bit. Any thoughts? —HorsePunchKid→龜 2007-03-14 21:30:39Z

See also "February 27?", below. --Aleph4 (talk) 17:53, 17 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I've also seen 22 July as Pi Day (22/7). I'm not sure how common this is, so I've refrained from putting it in the article for now. --Zundark, 2002 Jan 4

Polish TeX group (GUST) is also celebrating Pi Day. Should we add it? szopen

Sure, go ahead and add it! Also I've made a link to Pi Approximation Day which was referred to above. --Chuck Smith

should the UK pi day be 31st April? ;-) -- Tarquin

Should the article be titled "Pi Day" or "Pi day"?

I'd say Pi Day, like May Day, Labor Day, Arbor Day, Christmas Day, yadda yadda. --Brion

Tarquin: since 1 AU = earth's orbital radius, 1 radian = 1 au. in this case the two terms are interchangable, you can use radians or AU. However, since the earth's orbit is eliptical instead of round, it would probably be safer to use AU. - Tim

• Pi Approximation Day This is made up. A joke. It does not belong in an encyclopaedia. MrJones 18:06, 19 Oct 2003 (UTC)
  • I've never heard of that one, but there is Pi Day, which is March 14 (3/14). That's kind of a joke too, but it's a "real joke" I suppose. Adam Bishop 18:18, 19 Oct 2003 (UTC)
    • That page also should die. MrJones 19:24, 19 Oct 2003 (UTC)
      • Why? In any case, at least we don't have an article about the Prime Number Shitting Bear :) (Yet...) Adam Bishop 19:38, 19 Oct 2003 (UTC)
        • It is rubbish and doesn't tell one anything. Why keep it? I don't deny it exists, but should we have informaton about every 'day' that gets invented? Every site that refers to it that I found was either cranky or otherwise full of nonsense. It doesn't really bear consideration. Throw it out. MrJones 20:07, 19 Oct 2003 (UTC)
          • Actually, at my high school (albeit a math and science HS) we did celebrate Pi day. And I've heard several other references to it since then. It's a legit phenomenon --Raul654 20:47, 19 Oct 2003 (UTC)
          • Just because it's strange doesn't mean it should be deleted. Evil saltine 00:27, 20 Oct 2003 (UTC)
          • We had Pi Day at my high school too (although I don't really recall anything special happening, except the math and science teachers being excited...) Adam Bishop 00:44, 20 Oct 2003 (UTC)
  • Delete. I would say that Pi Day is quite enough, thank you. -- BCorr ¤ Брайен 00:52, 21 Oct 2003 (UTC)
  • Keep. Wartortle 21:36, 22 Oct 2003 (UTC)
  • Move content to pi and redirect. -- Minesweeper 01:32, Oct 21, 2003 (UTC)
  • Pi Day is definitely real. PAD I'd never heard of, but it seems to get plenty of Google hits. Yes, I think we should keep information on 'days' if they're really observed (by a non-negligible number of people). The information could as well be folded into pi, as long as it's kept, but I don't see the need. -- VV 07:59, 21 Oct 2003 (UTC)
    • How can the number of observers be assessed? The size (and seriousness) of the instituting body is more obtainable. I agree with you, broadly, though. 217.206.44.122 17:21, 21 Oct 2003 (UTC)
  • Delete. If we list every made-up holiday celebrated by 50 random people, there will be a lot of extra nonsense. Daniel Quinlan 08:46, Oct 21, 2003 (UTC)
  • I propose to merge into Pi Day - unless that one is also a deletion candidate, that is. Andre Engels 08:56, 21 Oct 2003 (UTC)
  • agreed, merge with Pi day. ping 09:13, 23 Oct 2003 (UTC)
  • Merge with Pi Day - which should be kept, real day. -- Jake 14:26, 24 Oct 2003 (UTC)

merged. All is well with the world. Martin 21:18, 24 Oct 2003 (UTC)

• Well, better, I suppose. Hurumph. It's still not clear what should be done about 'days' in general. Do we need criteria, or is consensus enough? There are a lot of silly invented ones out there (far worse that this one, I'll grant you). MrJones 00:58, 25 Oct 2003 (UTC)
• I've raised a similar point on Wikipedia_talk:Deletion_policy. MrJones 01:17, 25 Oct 2003 (UTC)
• I'm sorry, this whole Pi Day page is nonsense. It is not an official day recognized by any country or any major religion. I'm not sure joke articles belong in Wikipedia. Worse yet as a joke, it isn't even funny. Sour pickle 04:50, 22 July 2005 (UTC)[reply]
  • If it's nonsense to you because of it not being a religious or national holiday, I bring to your attention that there is another category of holidays, the geek holidays. There is a world beyond what is recognized by governments and religons. Nothing to be sorry about. --BrendanRyan 09:04, 22 July 2005 (UTC)[reply]
    • *giggles* --Ihope127 15:47, 2 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

• • Even if I did think this page was a waste of time and space, it's nowhere near the waste that this whole arguement is. It's obvoise that Mr. Jones doesn't like this page, but there are definately more than "50 random people" that celebrate this day. I have gone to two different high schools, one in Indianna and one in California and I had multiple teachers in both schools that celebrated pi day. I'm a major celebrator (I mean major as in I decorate my house, make pi day shirts, eat lots of pies, and even memorize digits of pi) so I mention it to lots of people and you'd be suprised how many people have heard of it. Regardless, I think everyone just needs to calm down and let the page be.Nathan Wonnacott

• • • I'm from Sweden, and the math teachers on our school in seventh to ninth grade celebrated Pi Day, while in tenth to twelfth grade, the science teachers celebrated both Pi Day and Pi Approximation Day (22/7). Something celebrated in some schools in several countries is something spread enough to be worthy of a Wikipedia article if you ask me. And on the notion of "made up" that some people insisted on bringing up, religious holidays are also made up. Maybe Rastafari and The Flying Spaghetti Monster shouldn't have an article because it's sarcasm? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 193.11.218.215 (talk) 18:24, 17 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I concure with my brother, Pi Day is more than just some random day someone thought up, I've been to schools in Indiana, California, and now Utah were Pi Day is observed. It is a legitimate holiday and is practiced by far more than the few math fanatics one would expect. Jared Wonnacott

• • holidays do not need to be official or national in order to to be listed in an encyclopedia. Mother's Day and Father's Day are not official things either. the key here is notability, and i would say as long as it has either geographical spread or large numbers of followers, it is notable, and it meets both. Pi Day is extremely widely celebrated by technical students at universities as well as high schools worldwide. it is definitely more than notable enough to be included in an article. Even if Pi Day IS a joke (I suppose it is?) it is notable enough for coverage in Wikipedia. Wikipedia should cover jokes with such a large following. 18.250.0.177 (talk) 04:31, 14 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

14 March, 1592? :D DX 03:03, Apr 11, 2004 (UTC)

I would like to remind you all that pi is approximately 3.14159265358979323... meaning that pi moment should occur on March 14, 1592 at 6:53:59 (note the 9, because 589 would round up not down). —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.103.74.5 (talk) 23:23, 20 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

From the article:

Some, using a twenty-four-hour clock rather than a twelve hour clock, say that 1:59 PM is actually 13:59 and celebrate it at 1:59 AM instead.

Wouldn't a more accurate approach be to consider it as a 24-hour time, 3/14 15:92:65, subtract the hour from 92 to get 16:32:65, subtract the minute from 65 to get 16:33:05, aka 4:33:05 PM? Otherwise, you're wasting a digit, and making us stay up until 1:59 AM, which is gosh, a whole half hour away for me now! -- John Owens (talk) 07:29, 2005 Mar 14 (UTC)

lol this entry is probably one of the funniest on wikipedia. "Pi Day" -__- wooot math geeeeeeeeks! 142.58.101.46 21:18, 14 Mar 2005 (UTC)

amen, I must say, I've never enjoyed a page more than this. I love you guysNathan Wonnacott

teehee! Millyissa

Calling 3.14 "Pi" and 22/7 "pi approximation" is awfully decimal-centric, especially since the latter is closer to the true value of pi. And the integer POV (pi=3) is nowhere to be seen. ;-) DDerby 11:06, 15 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Well, the question should be, "what do people who celebrate these days call them"? What names we think appropriate is irrelevant; this page should exist to encyclopedically record the event as celebrated. There doesn't seem to be much evidence presented that people do celebrate these days, though - all discussion seems to be along the lines of "wouldn't it be cool if...", not "this is celebrated by..." TSP 13:45, 22 July 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Hee. Thanks for the laugh. :)

I agree, although it would be fun to come up with all the days we could celebrate it, or should celebrate it, it is celebrated on March 14 by the majority of celebrators. If we all celebrate on differant days, or on all of them, it would loose it's effect. Pi day is March 14th. suck it up.Millyissa

"(in most non-english speaking parts of the world the pronounciation of pi does not correspond to pies or various drinks, in some languages it corresponds to urine)"

Is this true? - Ianneub 18:19, July 22, 2005 (UTC)

The original author has obscured his meaning in an attempt to appear genteel. His point was that the pronunciation of "pi" in many languages (including, as it happens, Greek) is "pee" rather than "pie". The argument is half-baked, however, since it is in any case extremely unlikely that those languages will include the other words referred to. Largely irrelevant. -- scwimbush 03:43, 11 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

You may be interested in the WikiProject, WikiProject Holidays, a WikiProject that will focus on standardizing articles about Holidays. It has been around for quite some time, but I'm starting it up again, and would like to see some more members (and our original members) around the help out. Cheers. — Ilγαηερ (Tαlκ) 21:16, 21 August 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Another potentially ultimate Pi day would be 3141 May 9, though it remains to be seen if Wikipedia will still be around by then. ;-)

At 26:54, if we've reformed our calendar, thank you. ~user:orngjce223how am I typing? 01:40, 7 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

another good day would be March 14 2015, as one would write that in abbreviation as 3/14/15, and also it's a lot closer than the year 3141 ;]

I'm soooo excited! You guys are all invited to my 3/14/15 party! only like 8 years, 55 days, 12 hours, 38 minutes, 26.53589793238462643383... secondsNathan Wonnacott 21:21, 16 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Happy Pi Day, everyone! JaredW! 12:19, 14 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Happy Pi Day back to you! Of course we all know that Pi are round, not square! :o) Erzahler 19:14, 14 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Happy Pi Day to all! We celebrated Pi Day today at my high school by selling pies. I helped organize it, along with the rest of the math team (this is pretty much the biggest thing we do all year); however there was not enough pie left during my lunch hour for me to buy. So I didn't get to eat any pie. Oh well. It was still a good Pi day. BirdValiant 21:48, 14 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I checked this site: http://www.joyofpi.com/pi.html , and it seems the anons are right after all. Please don't revert the latest change. It is 3.14159265358. — Kimchi.sg | Talk 00:08, 16 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

The anonymous editor User:129.97.83.220 added the claim that

Pi day was invented by the University of Waterloo.

I removed it for the moment. If it is false, it should not be in the article. If it is true, some documentation should be provided; in particular, I doubt that "the university" invented it. It may well have been a particular person (student, processor, staff?) or a particular office in that university. Again, if it is true, there must be some documentation.

I also removed User:70.29.101.177's description

In addition, the businesses ... of the Greater toronto area have started recognizing Pi day. The Pi-oneer Elvin Wong petitioned for months to implement a Pi day celebration.... To be considered an offical Pi day celebration, there must be a minimum of 5 people...

It certainly does not fit into the first paragraph of the article. (If it is true, there could be a subsection "pi day around the world.) Second, "for months" does not make sense if no year is given for Wong's action. But it sounds like something something made up in school one day.

Full text that I removed:

Pi day was invented by the University of Waterloo, which celebrates it annually by bestowing pie on its undergraduates. In addition, the businesses and commercial offices in the Richmond Hill area of Greater Toronto have started recognizing Pi day. The “Pi-oneer”, University of Waterloo graduate hopeful Elvin Wong, petitioned for months to implement a Pi day celebration in the work place. A 20-minute slice of time is taken starting from 1:59pm. To be considered an offical Pi day celebration, there must be a minimum of 5 people to make up the “crust” of the Pi day celebration. Over half of the members of the crust must be attending or be alumni of the University of Waterloo.

Aleph4 22:27, 16 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I reverted the pi moment paragrah from this text, which was inserted by User:207.69.137.27:

The "ultimate" pi moment<ref>At least twice in the West, about a fortnight earlier for those countries (like Russia and the UK) that still used the Julian calendar in 1592.</ref> will occur on March 14, 5358, at 1:59 AM and 26 seconds. When written in American-style date format, this is 3/14,1:59:26, 5358 which corresponds to the value of pi to twelve digits: 3.14159265358.

I highly doubt that Americans write their date and time in MMDDHHmmSSYYYY format. — Kimchi.sg | Talk 08:02, 19 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I think that other unrelated holidays, namely White Day, Steak and Blowjob Day, and Ides of March, should not be listed in the See also section because they have nothing to do with Pi Day. They fall near the same calendar date but that's it. These other holidays are listed in March 14, which is where they belong. Jonathan Kovaciny 22:38, 23 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

celebrating Pi Day by watching the TV show Magnum P.I.? Cuz, you know, P.I., pi....

i think that pi day is a really cool thing. i am doing pi for a project so i am looking in to pi day.

Yeah, no. This is quite a bad atempt at a pun, and, frankyly, this idea is [insert colorful language here].

Those who wish to add more pi approximation days, please keep them in order of their occurrence in the year.
Cormallen 02:43, 1 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Does anyone know if the AIMEE math tests are traditionally held on this day? At my school, they had the competitions today, on the 13th of March... Abeg92contribs 00:30, 14 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Two things might be useful to add to this article:

• At my middle school, we used to count down until the "Pi Equinox", 14 March at 1:59:26 pm. (I know it doesn't really work in 24h, but nobody would be up.)
• Albert Einstein's birthday is — no way! — Pi Day.

If anyone cares, Hangfromthefloor 00:56, 14 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Happy Pi Day. Ahsile 15:12, 14 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Happy Pi Day! Our school celebrated pi day this year after we made t-shirts last year. During lunch we had a pi eating contest in which my brother competed. Because there were two rounds he had two pies. In his lunch he had another. After school my mom gave us a pie to split. Nathan decided he only wanted .14159265358979323846264 of the pie, so I scored extra. HEY PIE ROX! Millyissa

This is now the second time that User:OrangeMustang has added the Pi Across America link. These two times are the only edits he has made to the wiki. As a rule for myself, I don't go to any suspicious websites (I'm afraid of getting viruses and spy/adware), so I don't know if it is suitable or not. Is this website suitable to be included under external links, or is this just another case of spamming? --LuigiManiac | Talk 19:10, 19 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I, using FireFox with various extensions, felt comfortable enough to follow the link. The site has various pi-related topics, but is not really about Pi Day, so I removed the link. timrem 20:09, 19 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you timrem. --LuigiManiac | Talk 20:10, 19 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Why isn't there a 2π day on June 28? Heshy613 23:30, 29 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Because that would require twice as much pie to feed the masses.-Wafulz 02:55, 30 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

That and if we celerated Pi at every given chance, it wouldn't be special anymore. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.216.187.41 (talk) 21:40, 18 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

See next section. Aleph4 (talk) 20:22, 5 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Do we have any sources that

February 27: The Earth is estimated to have traveled 1 radian of its orbit since the New Year.

is anywhere celebrated as Pi day? It does not make sense to me; 1 radian is ${\displaystyle {\frac {1}{2\pi }}}$ of the circumference. A reasonable name would be "r" day or "radius/radian" day, or "1 over 2pi" day. --Aleph4 (talk) 17:52, 17 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]

This has now been changed to April 26, for 2 radians. Still I don't see why this is pi day, it is rather "1 over pi" day. Of course there are lots of days that could be celebrated as pi Approximation Day, such as March 1 or Jan 3 (as 3.1 is also an approximation), but the question is: do we have any sources that any of these days is celebrated by any group of non-negligible size? --Aleph4 (talk) 20:22, 5 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

For some reason I am unable to edit this article. Someone might want to add that 3/14 is not just the American style; while the American style is mm-dd-yyyy, the Chinese style is yyyy年mm月dd号 or mm月dd号 when the year is omitted, which also lends itself to March 14 being Pi Day for them as well (called 圓周率日, although it isn't quite is widely known as it is in America). --18.250.0.177 (talk) 04:24, 14 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, but Pi Day is a chiefly American holiday, despite all those obvious efforts to present it as something globally recognized. It is no more international than Baseball World Cup, i.e. it makes that typical for the US naive inclusion of the words "world" or "international" in it, but in fact nas no intenational recognition whatsoever. The article is blocked from editing for the sole reson of preventing other people from attemting to remove that obnoxious American bias. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.102.249.143 (talk) 20:49, 15 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

in fact nas no intenational recognition whatsoever. May I ask how you can be so sure about that? Pi Day is recognized outside of the US. While it may still be a mainly American holiday, it's not only American. 81.232.34.132 (talk) 13:13, 19 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

The caption that reads "Free pie being handed out at the University of Waterloo" should read "Preparing to hand out free pie at the University of Waterloo".

The clock in the photo shows the time as 1:50 (9 minutes before Pi Minute). There is no evidence of anyone in the photo already eating pie. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 209.148.149.27 (talk) 23:11, 14 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

The founder of Pi Day, the "Prince of Pi", is Larry Shaw,[2] now retired from the Exploratorium, but still helping out with the celebrations. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 208.65.175.197 (talk) 23:44, 14 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I've heard from various sources that MIT traditionally makes an effort to release their "Regular Action" decisions on Pi Day. So far, it holds true for this year. I'm also quite certain that they try to be as pi-centric as possible without actually going out and saying it. This year, decisions will be released online at "2:00PM" - but the announcement goes on to say that they will "probably post them about a minute early", clearly referring to 1:59 - and though this is PM, I'm quite certain it is simply for convenience's sake. Any thoughts on the matter? 173.88.213.120 (talk) 20:04, 10 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I think this article should include the new photograph that I've added to it. It's at least as informative as the image of the three pies at MIT, which don't even contain any unusual decorations on them. The image I've added also represents a unique example of someone celebrating Pi Day concurrently with another holiday which happened to coincide with it this year.

If this image gets removed from the article again, I hope that the person removing it provides an explanation for why they're doing so.

Captain Occam (talk) 23:32, 16 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Very sorry, Captain Occam, but it appears a series of typo errors caused a template in the lede to be broken, and when i fixed it i must have made another typo which removed the lines of text with your img and layout. I hope it is all fixed now? Please let me know if there are other errors, i can't discern in the History where the img and template tags were broken. Thanks ~ Teledildonix314 ~ ^Talk ~ _4-1-1 ~ 23:56, 16 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

It seems to be working properly now. Thanks. Captain Occam (talk) 00:34, 17 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]