Happy pi day 2017!

I'd like to wish each and every one of you a happy pi day! Hopefully you didn't all blow your wad celebrating the once in a century special pi day last year and can still remember the joys of pi and math in general this March 14.

Yes, this would explain my magnetism with the ladies. Unfortunately, it is the repelling kind.

The question for the poll is which statements do you agree with?

I'm half German so I have to go with this pie.

Having Pi Day be March 14 is math racist against the rest of the world that writes the date in logical order from smallest unit to largest. It should be in July

My favorite pie is cheesecake. It's in the pie section at every buffet. And there's usually a sugar free option so we know it's nutritious

The only possible way for there to be a "pi day" is to be on March 14 (3/14). If written DD-MM, it'd have to be 31/4 (april 31'st) or 3/14 (3'rd day of 14'th month) -- neither of which exist.

Unless we wanna neanderthals and just call it January 3'rd (3/1) and round off the last .04159 etc. off.



PS: I don't remember if I won the bet or lost the bet, I think I won the bet though, that Mike couldn't name off the first 10 digits of pi. :sadface:

Mike, by next year, I expect you to get as far as they do in this song: http://pi.ytmnd.com/



PSS: Best "pi day" was 3/14/15. Pi is not to be rounded, so I refuse 3/14/16 to be the "holy grail" or whatever of pi day.



Best kind of pie is apple pie. Although, I'm not a huge pie fan. Cherry pie is very sub-par. Cheesecake isn't really pie, IMO, but it's very delicious.

Quote: JoelDeze

I'm half German so I have to go with this pie.

Wunderbar! So am I.

Quote: TomG

Having Pi Day be March 14 is math racist against the rest of the world that writes the date in logical order from smallest unit to largest. It should be in July

Maybe I'm not the sharpest took in the shed, but why July?

Quote: RS

PS: I don't remember if I won the bet or lost the bet, I think I won the bet though, that Mike couldn't name off the first 10 digits of pi. :sadface:

I think you would have won if you bet the no. I can only get to 6 to 8 digits. I don't think memorizing digits of pi is a good measure of the love of pi. It is more so in understanding the beauty and significance of pi. I find it amazing, to an almost religious degree, how pi and e come up in math almost everywhere.

Quote: Wizard

Maybe I'm not the sharpest took in the shed, but why July?

22 July is also written as 22/7 -- which is closer to pie than 3.14, but not closer than 3.142017, but having the date go from month to day to year is the Stupid American way of doing it. The units of days, months, and years should go in order from smallest to largest (or largest to smallest if we know the year is the most important piece of information).

I am in no way advocating replacing today with a different Pi Day, only adding to it. To make up for doubling the number of Pi Day's, we will cut in half the number of Valentines Day's by having it only every other year

When we consider how many digits are in pi, why is cutting it off at three, 3.14, so far superior to cutting it off at one, 3.1? I'm going to start using that as my approximation for pi

just looking it up briefly, they probably blew it back in 1592 for more than one reason, including manner of notation of dates in those days

so the next shot at it will be the year 15926. Can't wait!

We had PI day at work in the engineering building I work in. Lots of pies set out for breakfast and lunch.

I like chocolate pie! Yummy! I voted for "Totally forgot." :)

My favorite was the huckleberry and also apple pies my grandma made. Almost all store bought pies stink and have a horrible crust. Huckleberries are wild blueberries and the crusts I dont think I like because they're usually made with vegetable oil. Too dry, too brittle and too bland. I think my grandma used lard in her crusts.

I usually rant about stupid American customs like Daylight Savings Time, still using pennies, and not having health care for everyone, but the American way of writing the month, date, then year, I think, makes total sense.

If you're talking about something happening in the same month, you would just say the date. If you need to know when it's going to happen later (or even earlier), you say the month to orient yourself of the timeframe (are we talking about summertime? autumn?), then the date.

In terms of writing, a case could be made to list the year first, but that seems robotic. In terms of storytelling, I like the big reveal at the end: on March 14—in the year 1872—nothing happened!

I don't think everything has to follow an order, especially in the case of an ascending date, or a descending date. We're conforming to natural human thinking! USA! USA! USA!!!

Quote: onenickelmiracle

My favorite was the huckleberry and also apple pies my grandma made. Almost all store bought pies stink and have a horrible crust. Huckleberries are wild blueberries and the crusts I dont think I like because they're usually made with vegetable oil. Too dry, too brittle and too bland. I think my grandma used lard in her crusts.

Lard is the secret to a flaky, moist but not soggy crust. You have to cut the dough to the size of peas while mixing, then when rolling, you should roll, fold, and re-roll about 4 times to get flaky layers. If it doesn't form the peas, you sprinkle a little water to moisten it.

Depending on the pie, it's smart to bake the empty crust for about 5 minutes.Use a fork before baking every couple inches to put holes in the crust, whether you pre-bake it or not.

Wholly crap, there is something math related that I am better than mike at. I used to be able to do 32 numbers of pi but now only 18 I think. In 8th grade I had a french class that I was horrible at, but the class had pi written as a border. I studied it for an entire symester and can still remember it today.

Also had a world cultures teacher tell us we would remember 1 thing for life. Rowanda, uganda, berundi
Not even sure if they still exist.

Quote: smoothgrh

I usually rant about stupid American customs like Daylight Savings Time, still using pennies, and not having health care for everyone, but the American way of writing the month, date, then year, I think, makes total sense.

If you're talking about something happening in the same month, you would just say the date. If you need to know when it's going to happen later (or even earlier), you say the month to orient yourself of the timeframe (are we talking about summertime? autumn?), then the date.

In terms of writing, a case could be made to list the year first, but that seems robotic. In terms of storytelling, I like the big reveal at the end: on March 14—in the year 1872—nothing happened!

I don't think everything has to follow an order, especially in the case of an ascending date, or a descending date. We're conforming to natural human thinking! USA! USA! USA!!!

Yeah, the United States way of month date year is better than date month year that other countries use, I agree with you. I had a tourist customer at my job show me a food that had a date of 11-01-2017 and asked me if the food had been spoiled for two months . I told her,"No. It spoils in November. In America the month is first and the day is second." She smiled and bought the food.

Pi is my favorite ratio.

Quote: TomG

22 July is also written as 22/7

Ah, thanks. Should have thought of that.

Quote: Nathan

Yeah, the United States way of month date year is better than date month year that other countries use, I agree with you. I had a tourist customer at my job show me a food that had a date of 11-01-2017 and asked me if the food had been spoiled for two months . I told her,"No. It spoils in November. In America the month is first and the day is second." She smiled and bought the food.

A bit off topic, but since we were about done with pi, I'll ask it anyway.

Is the date of expiration on food the date it can not longer be sold by, or the date it shouldn't be consumed by. For example, if I have milk dated March 17, can I safely drink it on March 18?

Quote: Wizard

A bit off topic, but since we were about done with pi, I'll ask it anyway.

Is the date of expiration on food the date it can not longer be sold by, or the date it shouldn't be consumed by. For example, if I have milk dated March 17, can I safely drink it on March 18?

Neither really. These things aren't regulated. Stores will get rid of them though. Milk, you just go by smell and flavor and consistency. Canned foods, just look for dents that break the can, and look for anything unusual, like odor or color. Companies for the most part just put these things on, so people will throw them out and buy more. They're guidelines I find only useful for meat knowing when to freeze them. Once you cook something, a different clock ticks.

Another tip, I always wash all meat and rinse before cooking in case it's contaminated with ecoli or something. Hamburger meat, of course you can't.

Quote: Wizard

A bit off topic, but since we were about done with pi, I'll ask it anyway.

Is the date of expiration on food the date it can not longer be sold by, or the date it shouldn't be consumed by. For example, if I have milk dated March 17, can I safely drink it on March 18?

There are a variety of dates on packaged goods. Some are "Use By" which means the product should be discarded after the expiration. Some are "Best By" which means you've got some time before it spoils. I have also seen "Use or freeze by", "Born on", "Use within 7 days after opening".

With milk, I think it is a "best by" so you've got a couple more days, as long it has been kept cold, before it goes bad. Trust your nose.

Here's a "Living in the desert" question... Do you keep a supply of insulated bags to transport groceries home?

FDA info on product dating:
https://www.fsis.usda.gov/wps/portal/fsis/topics/food-safety-education/get-answers/food-safety-fact-sheets/food-labeling/food-product-dating/food-product-dating

Pie with a glass of milk is great. Recent posts remind me of a Jerry Seinfeld bit:

Quote: Wizard

I think you would have won if you bet the no. I can only get to 6 to 8 digits. I don't think memorizing digits of pi is a good measure of the love of pi. It is more so in understanding the beauty and significance of pi. I find it amazing, to an almost religious degree, how pi and e come up in math almost everywhere.

Pi + e = Pie


Coincidence?

YOU DEICDE!!!

Quote: GWAE

Wholly crap, there is something math related that I am better than mike at. I used to be able to do 32 numbers of pi but now only 18 I think. In 8th grade I had a french class that I was horrible at, but the class had pi written as a border. I studied it for an entire symester and can still remember it today.

Also had a world cultures teacher tell us we would remember 1 thing for life. Rowanda, uganda, berundi
Not even sure if they still exist.

In 8'th grade, my geometry teacher had pencils that had pi written on them to like 20 digits or so. The class was fairly easy and I didn't really try. I always did my homework and classwork in pen because I'd forget to bring a pencil. Sometimes I'd get one of them Pi pencils from the teacher.

At the end of the class, the last 5 or 10 minutes, we'd have some "competition" thing where we'd get into groups and send people up to the white board and she'd give a problem and everyone would try to solve it. Whoever got it first, got a piece of candy.

Near the end of the year, she asked us to write out how many digits of Pi we knew. Well, I won that one handily, getting to 20 digits (or w/e it was on the pencil), while the other 3 people I was competing against got to the first 3 or 5 digits. I earned that piece of candy!!!

Quote: Wizard

A bit off topic, but since we were about done with pi, I'll ask it anyway.

Is the date of expiration on food the date it can not longer be sold by, or the date it shouldn't be consumed by. For example, if I have milk dated March 17, can I safely drink it on March 18?

I believe it's a "best by" date -- meaning the food is best to eat by that date. Doesn't mean the food goes bad immediately after that date, just that it's not the highest quality or freshest or w/e after that date. I don't drink much milk and rarely ever buy it. But it's good for at least 3 days after the "best by" date. For milk at least, it mostly matters when you open it...you probably have about a week to drink it before I'd throw it out.




RE: Dates -- I think both ways makes sense. On one hand, the Mexico system would have today as 17/3, which makes sense in a way because it's day then month then year (ascending order). However, the Freedom Units way would have today as 3/17, which also makes sense, because today is "March 17'th", which goes in order the way you'd say. Then again, in Spanish, you'd say, "Diecisiete de Marzo" which is "Seventeenth of March". I don't know how other stupid languages say "March 17'th", but at least in Spanish, it makes more sense for them to write 17/3, based on the language.



Speaking of both, I remember back in the day, in a Mexican grocery store, it wouldn't be uncommon to see someone open up a carton of milk, taste it, then decide if they wanted to buy it or not. That in it of itself isn't so bad, IMO. But the worst part is, sometimes you'd see a carton that had already been opened and someone would taste that one -- WHAT?! Are you kidding me? That means someone else already tasted it, decided it wasn't good enough to buy (most likely), yet here you are trying it anyway? What're you gonna do, decide it's good and buy it anyway after someone else has drunk from it? *facepalm*

Quote: RS

However, the Freedom Units way would have today as 3/17, which also makes sense, because today is "March 17'th", which goes in order the way you'd say.

Just because most of us write it wrong, doesn't mean we're obligated to also say it wrong; it's just something we choose to do. Saying "Eighteen March" conveys the same information as "March Eighteen," except the first one just happens to be in a logical order. Given three units of time: day, month, year, there are 3! different ways. Of all the countries in the world, why is America the only one that chooses to use month/day/year

Quote: Wizard

Is the date of expiration on food the date it can not longer be sold by, or the date it shouldn't be consumed by. For example, if I have milk dated March 17, can I safely drink it on March 18?

There is no "expiration" date printed on foods. For everything except for baby formula, any date you see on food packaging is just the seller trying to protect their reputation should you let it sit around too long before you eat it. If it tastes fine and doesn't make you sick, the date on the package is meaningless. And if it does taste bad or makes you sick, the date is still meaningless. We can use it as a general guide, but if we need these dates to guide what we eat versus what we throw away more than occasionally, we're doing a horrible job grocery shopping