Tuesday, March 03, 2009

It's Hip to be Square

I tried to reserve a hall for the next one, April 4, 2016. But everthing was already booked. So, I had to settle for May 5, 2025. Then I'll party "Newmanium" style!!

From Yahoo News:

3/3/09: Math fans to celebrate Square Root Day

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. - Dust off the slide rules and recharge the calculators. Square Root Day is upon us.

The math-buffs' holiday, which only occurs nine times each century, falls on Tuesday - 3/3/09 (for the mathematically challenged, three is the square root of nine).

"These days are like calendar comets, you wait and wait and wait for them, then they brighten up your day - and poof - they're gone," said Ron Gordon, a Redwood City teacher who started a contest meant to get people excited about the event. The winner gets, of course, $339 for having the biggest Square Root Day event. Gordon's daughter even set up a Facebook page - one of a half-dozen or so dedicated to the holiday - and hundreds of people had signed up with plans to celebrate in some way. Celebrations are as varied: Some cut root vegetables into squares, others make food in the shape of a square root symbol.

The last such day was five years ago, Feb. 2, 2004, which coincided with Groundhog Day. The next is seven years away, on April 4, 2016.

2 comments:

Purple Angelica said...

Square-Root Day! I'm no mathematician, (actually I'm a humanities grad student), but I was born on 9-9-81 - there are only nine chances per century to have a Square-Root Birthday!

Matt Maul said...

That's even cooler than being a Leap Year baby. Now if you can live to be a hundred, imagine the bash you could have ;)