If Pi is wrong, we don’t wanna be right
Who doesn’t love Pi? We love Pi. We hear they are squared. And we love to celebrate Pi day with a healthy slice of pie. In our Denver offices there is an avid debate about the right kind of pie (flavor, source) should be acquired to celebrate Pi Day. This is our favorite one:
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Pi_pie2.jpg
Being primarily techies, many Rocketeers have and play with Raspberry Pi. They like to explore how it used for clusters, as DIY home alarms, quadrocopter controllers, and development platforms for Visual Studio. Plus, a couple of enterprising folks outside the company have sent a Raspberry Pi into space on a *rocket*. So you see that Pi is popular for Rocketeers of all stripes.
But…we’ve been hearing some rumblings lately that Pi are wrong. Or rather Pi IS wrong. And that really we should be using something called Tau. Because it’s much more sensible than Pi and makes math easier to understand and more elegant. There are some pretty compelling arguments by a blogger named Vi Hart who hangs around with “mathematical artists”.
And…there is a whole movement, if you will, a Tau Manifesto even decries pi by one Michel Hartl.
Unfortunately, since Tau is 2Pi, Tau day is (in the U.S.) on June 28th and I don’t want to wait that long. For that matter, to be culturally sensitive I should point out that Pi day in the U.S. is March 14th (3/14…) but in Europe and other areas who formats differently it isn’t until some time in April, possibly in a different year if we’re picky and I really don’t want to wait THAT long.
So in the meantime, we here in Rocket U.S. will happily celebrate Pi day on March 14th *and* every variation of date formats it fits into AS WELL as Tau day on June 28th. In fact, I think we should have twice as many Pi(e)s and call it a win-win. FTWW.
Or as they say it it here… TGI Tau Day!
Source: pippijewelry (flickr).
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