Template talk:Pie

Oh my, what a discussion have I started here... :D -- relet 22:42, 13 March 2009 (UTC)

I like it! It has the appropriate XKCD techno-geek feel to it! --NCBears 16:44, 13 March 2009 (UTC)

Why is there a "Pi Day" when people eat pies? The two things have nothing to do with each other, and they're not even spelled the same. Is there similarly a "delta day" when people try to get to river archipelagos? Or a "gamma day" when people expose themselves to radiation? A "mu day" when people go round pretending to be cows? I just don't get it, sorry. -- Benjw 18:26, 13 March 2009 (UTC)

It is obviously not about greek letters. There is a set of people who likes the number pi (including certain users of this wiki, I assume), and a set of people who like tasty pies. Since the set union is fairly large, it is manifest to celebrate both on the same day. -- relet 18:42, 13 March 2009 (UTC)

If those other Greek letters had numbers associated with them, there probably would be. The idea of Pi day is that in the American date notation, 3.14 or "three one four" corresponds to 3/14 or March 14th. Having determined that this is Pi day, the question then becomes how do you celebrate Pi day? With circles and round things like the homophonous pie? In short it isn't π = pie --> let's eat celebrate. It's π ~= 3.14 --> let's celebrate with something that is appropriately shaped and named. You could also ride horses with irregularly-shaped black patches, read works by a former poet laureate of England, or throw coins and try to not have them land on parallel lines (pi turns up in the equation governing the probability that they will, assuming your aim is poor enough to be considered random chance). -Robyn 18:45, 13 March 2009 (UTC)

But why bother 'celebrating' pi? It's just a number. A fairly useful one, yes, but I bet that most people who eat pies and think lovingly about 3.14 (a) don't actually know what pi is useful for, beyond "something to do with circles", and (b) can't go any further than "three point one four, um, er". [I'd better acknowledge here that users of this wiki are probably slightly more educated than the general public in this matter.] -- Benjw 18:51, 13 March 2009 (UTC)

Hey, here's an idea. Let's have an "e day", when we all celebrate the fabulous number e, which is a lot more useful than pi when you do a lot of stuff involving calculus (which I do, unfortunately). We can all go round reciting "two point seven one er dunno the rest" and talking like Yorkshiremen ("eeeeee, when I were a lad, this were all fields..."). We can have it on 7 February. Any takers? -- Benjw 18:53, 13 March 2009 (UTC)

Sure. e Day is the 72nd of February, or 13 April (except in leap years). We celebrate by tossing the caber, or by building log cabins. --starbird 21:51, 13 March 2009 (UTC)

By golly, I'm feeling belligerent this evening. I'm going to go away and leave you poor people in peace now. Have a nice weekend, y'all. -- Benjw 18:58, 13 March 2009 (UTC)

a) I'd be surprised if there were not people who didn't already celebrate e-day, by the same token. And Avogadro Day on June 2nd, and Plank Day four days later. I'd say the popularity of Pi Day was attributable to the fact that pi is a much better known number, and that pie is more popular than avocados, planks, and um, eels? What would you do on e-day? Walk a slackrope?

I would love to celebrate avocado day, too. :D -- relet 22:42, 13 March 2009 (UTC)

b) I think anyone who eats pie to celebrate pi day could quote and demonstrate the use of at least one formula involving pi, and I think most would be hard pressed to get through the day without a pun treating the subject of the shape of pies.

Ack, I agree with that. That makes the achievement more interesting. I intentionally left the actual achievement description open. -- relet 22:42, 13 March 2009 (UTC)

c) Do you prefer the holiday the day after pi day in which people combine food colouring and alcoholic beverages to commemorate species extinction local to an island they've never visited? -Robyn 19:04, 13 March 2009 (UTC)

I don't get this one... -- relet 22:42, 13 March 2009 (UTC)

What's neat is that the US Congress recognized 'Pi Day' today. I called Bear when I read the article and said we should do something...then I searched diligently for a reachable hash. So I'm glad to see I'm not the only weard one ;-). It's supposed to pour rain tomorrow, but we're picnicing and having our pi(e). Thanks Relet -- Eisen 19:17, 13 March 2009 (UTC)

People (in this case usually nerds) celebrating something arbitrary? That's impossible. I suppose you have a good reason why new years is celebrated on the day it is, instead of some more meaningful day astronomically, like a solstice or equinox? People choose days to celebrate things arbitrarily, and arbitrary ways to celebrate those days. This is nothing new or unique to pi day. Yarr mateys, lets talk like a pirate on September 19th. --aperfectring 19:24, 13 March 2009 (UTC)