I just wanted to make the announcement, if anyone happened to be unaware. The reason for the holiday, if you haven't guessed already, is because sqrt(1225) = 35. Translating those numbers into calendar dates gives us the square root of Christmas 12/25 falling on 3/5.
It just so happens that there is another big nerd holiday in March, Pi Day (3/14). Why not connect these two dates with a week(ish) long nerd celebration? I hereby declare that:
- March 5th shall be known as the Square Root of Christmas and
- The 10-day interval between the Square Root of Christmas and Pi Day shall be known as Nerdigras
Update (2012-02-05): The Square Root of Christmas finally has a domain name to call its own! Use either: http://squarerootofchristmas.com/ or (for shorter links) http://sqrtxmas.com/ if you mention it on twitter, use #sqrtxmas
Tweet #sqrtxmas
13 comments:
Pi Day is coming up.. also my B-day
I think unlike lent, you should have to make or learn something in the 40 days after nerdigras.
I call it
"Happy Quintilis!"
Reason: sqrt(1225*35) = 207.
207th day falls in July and 'Quintilis' is Latin for July.
Being a real nerd, I must say that not everyone is in the same locale. For me Christmas is 25-12 (not 12/25) and Pi Day would not even exist for me, as there is no fourteenth month.
So, I'll just play along with this otherwise smashing idea. Have the happiest of Nerdigras everyone! (Not that difficult, as is this obviously the very first one in existence. ;-))
Those in a European style date locale can still play along, they just have to celebrate square root of my birthday instead.
Mar 5 = 5/3 = 53
53 * 53 = 2809 = Sep 28 (my birthday)
And what's more, its like double christmas because:
Jul 1 = 1/7 = 17
17 * 17 = 289 = Sep 28 (ALSO my birthday)
It has also been noted that
Oct 31 = Dec 25,
thereby equating the observances on the two days.
I've gotten into the habit of writing dates in a "big endian" style:
2009-03-09 yesterday
2009-03-10 today
2009-03-11 tomorrow
(or sometimes without the dashes)
I started doing this because I wanted dates to sort (and be written) like regular numbers.
But when signing checks, I'll sometimes write "2009, March 10" to make it explicit (because writing YYYY-MM-DD is definitely non-standard in the U.S.).
Just wanted to let you know that I've added this to my Nerd calendar. Let me know if you have anything else to add!
PI Day's next day was my birthday but i could not enjoy that much like my previous year the PI day also my birthday because i was alone for my exam.
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(1) There is only one true way to write dates: The international standard ISO-8601. Anyone who does it differently is an ignorant savage.
(2) December 25 if the 359th or 360th day of the year. sqrt(359) =18.9... So, rounding up, sqrt(Christmas) should be January 19.
(3) It's kinda arbitrary to use January 1 as the first day of the year. For a long time, March 1 was considered the beginning of the year, especially before they started numbering years. This is why they are not called OCTober, NOVember, and DECember anymore. And why leap day falls the day before March 1. That would make sqrt(Christmas) = March 17.
(4) Why are we counting in days? The SI unit of time is the second. I'll leave the consequence of that fact as an exercise for the student.
-Hal (who else)
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