I know we have enough controversies these days and it wasn’t my intention yesterday to start another one when I suggested that Pi Day should be on July 22 instead of March 14. Well, it seems that there is another movement afoot that Pi Day shouldn’t be either of these days, and maybe not even be celebrated at all. I’m going to stop short of calling this a conspiracy, but it’s something we should probably keep an eye on.
The traditional Pi Day looks like 3.14 for those that write dates in the month, then day format. It should be noted that this format is rarely used outside of the Americas. Pi Approximation Day, the 22nd of July, is written more in line with the European format, as 22/7.
Well, get ready for it — there are “others” that would prefer that Pi Day not be celebrated at all. They say that number, with all its decimal places, should not be given the status of having its own day. “They” say that we should replace Pi with Tau — a number that serves much the same purpose and should be celebrated on June 28, written 6/28.
At least some of this argument is based on the date format. Pi Day was born in the US where the month, then day format is used. Worldwide, by far the most popular date format is day/month/year — it is used in the UK, much, if not most, of Asia, Australia, Africa and South America. Pi Day (March 14) doesn’t work with that format, but the format does work for Pi Approximation Day.
(In China and many other countries in south-east Asia, dates are written year, month, day. It’s possible to write Pi Day in that format since the day (14) does follow the month (3) — but, the year still comes first and so it doesn’t work quite as well.)
So what’s the deal with this movement to replace Pi Day with Tau Day? Advocates of the Tau movement insist that Tau is the true circle constant. The (Tau) number itself is simply Pi, but doubled — to 6.28318…. the Tau community insists that makes it easier to use in many applications. The movement has created a website that explains, in detail, why the world is wrong. Try ing to convince the world that Pi is confusing and an unnatural choice for the circle constant won’t be easy — giving the Greek letter Tau its own day, much less replacing Pi Day will be a difficult challenge. The “Tau people” admit they are facing a powerful, centuries old, conspiracy that propagates pro-Pi propaganda.
So if you’re like me, into special days — you may want to consider starting a movement in your own neighborhood to recognize June 28 as Tau Day. It may take a while, but maybe the world will come around. Until the movement really gets going, you might think about celebrating “Tau Time” (6.28 pm) on Pi Day. That time, 6.28 pm, on Pi Day, is when the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) sends out its admissions decisions over the Internet.
So this is no ∏ in the sky theory — it’s legit. And just think, if Tau Day does replace Pi Day, we get to have twice as much ∏.
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