Yes, it’s Pi Day, so once again we celebrate an amazing coincidence of calendar and math.
This is the date of the year that matches the first three digits of the decimal expansion of what should be everyone's favorite mathematical constant, pi, because, of course, March 14 is 3/14, and the first three digits of pi are 3.14.This is a day that geeky mathematicians and engineers celebrate, while the rest of you just look at us funny. Some people even celebrate the pi minute (1:59 PM), the pi second (1:59:26 PM), and the pi minute (1:59:26.5358979… PM), which will happen during our Pi Day Pie Social today!
Now, some Europeans and others outside the United States think they can’t celebrate pi day because they write their dates in an odd fashion (14/3/2014). However, if you happen to come across any Europeans today, tell them to use the ISO date standard (2014-3-14). Now the whole world can celebrate pi day!
And of course, if you use the European date format this year and drop the day and also the first two digits from the year, you’ll see this the entire month of March has been the centennial pi month using that date format (14/3/2014 -> 3/2014 -> 3/14).
_____
Did You Know . . .?
Jack Kerouac wrote his novel On the Road in just 20 days.
See Jack Kerouac
_____
HISTORICAL EVENT
Although JFK never specified where he wanted to be buried, most of his family and friends assumed he would have chosen a plot in his home state of Massachusetts.William Taft is the only other president besides JFK interred at Arlington.
_____
WORD FOR TODAY
geek
noun
1. a person who is preoccupied with or very knowledgeable about computing
2. a boring and unattractive social misfit
3. a degenerate
The word geek is a slang term originally used to describe eccentric or non-mainstream people, with different connotations ranging from an expert or enthusiast to a person heavily interested in a hobby, with a general pejorative meaning of a peculiar or otherwise dislikable person, especially one who is perceived to be overly intellectual.
_____
CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS
Albert Einstein was a German-born theoretical physicist. He developed the general theory of relativity, one of the two pillars of modern physics (alongside quantum mechanics). While best known for his mass–energy equivalence formula E = mc2 (which has been dubbed "the world's most famous equation"), he received the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics "for his services to theoretical physics, and especially for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect". The latter was pivotal in establishing quantum theory.
William Edward "Billy" Crystal
(born March 14, 1948)
(born March 14, 1948)
Frank Frederick Borman, II
(born March 14, 1928)
(born March 14, 1928)
Frank Borman is a retired NASA astronaut, best remembered as the Commander of Apollo 8, the first mission to fly around the Moon, making him, along with crew mates Jim Lovell and Bill Anders, the first of only 24 humans to do so. In the HBO miniseries From the Earth to the Moon, Borman was played by David Andrews.
Tamara Renee Tunie
(born March 14, 1959)
(born March 14, 1959)
Tamara Tunie is an American film, stage, and television actress. She is best known for her portrayal of attorney Jessica Griffin on the CBS soap opera As the World Turns, and medical examiner Melinda Warner on the NBC police drama Law & Order: Special Victims Unit Tunie has also appeared in film, most notably playing the key supporting role of Margaret Thomason in the 2012 film Flight.
__________
I know this sounds strange, but as a kid, I was really shy. Painfully shy. The turning point was freshman year, when I was the biggest geek alive. No one, I mean no one, even talked to me.
--Jim Carrey
NASA TV
No comments:
Post a Comment