Have A Pie

Can you guess what day it is today?  Have you possibly missed the bunting, the public holiday, the massed crowds cheering in the streets?  Of course you haven't and of course you know without me telling you that today is Pi Day.  "No it isn't you idiot,"  I hear you cry, "it's Wednesday."
Well yes it is Wednesday but this is a special Wednesday for this is the day set aside to celebrate Pi.  Pi, of course is that irritating number that seems to exist solely so that people with eidetic memories can amuse themselves and irritate others by reciting it to several million decimal places.  Sometimes some sadly underemployed computers are used to do the same thing calculating the number to literally trillions of decimal places.

Here's the thing.  If knowing the seven trillionth decimal place of pi was actually important to the functioning of the universe in any way then we would probably have vanished in a mathematical catastrophe by now.  Despite the utter pointlessness of pi some physicists desperately in need of a date managed to get March 14th semi officially recognised as Pi Day.  Feel free to visit the official Pi Day website for more details (http://www.piday.org/).  US Congress totally failed its collective responsibilities as responsible adults by giving pseudo acknowledgement to this pitiable attempt at scientific celebration by passing a non binding resolution recognising 14 March 2009 as National Pi Day. 

For the record a non binding resolution is when legislators want to show themselves vaguely in favour of something without actually committing themselves to doing anything about it.  It's sort of like joining the United Nations or desiring world peace.  Nobody expects you to do anything but you look like a bit of a dick if you don't sign up.

So with Congress indicating its benevolent disinterest Pi Day was off and running.  Mainly it was running around the circumference of a circle.  Not a good mathematics joke I know but anybody who saw my high school maths results would be surprised that I managed to make it without assistance.

How is Pi Day celebrated.  Well a lot of it involves pies.  This is proof if proof were needed that not even physicists or mathemeticians actually know what to do with pi.  Pies are made, shared and doubtless enjoyed.  Hopefully in smoky taverns (which are a thing of the past damn anti smoking laws) hard drinking scientists are slamming down shots, gorging themselves on pies and listening in rapt delight as the star attraction; cigarette in hand, pie juice dribbling down his chin shotguns a beer and belches pi to seventy thousand decimal places.

In Japan and Korea of course this isn't Pi Day it's White Day.  A celebration which would sound a lot more disturbing if it was going on in Arkansas for example.  This is basically Valentines Day payback where men who received gifts of chocolate or whatever from women on Valentines Day are supposed to return the favour.  Traditionally the value of the gift should be three times that received by the man.  I say traditionally, but since Japan and Korea have been around for centuries and White Day has only been celebrated since 1978 I probably mean "non traditionally".  Since Valentines Day isn't traditional to Japanese or Korean culture either you'd probably guessed that.  You also probably won't be surprised to hear that the whole thing was got up by Japan's National Confectionery Industry Association.

Speaking of which we should probably check out whether Sara Lee had any involvement in Pi Day.