3/3/09 News: Squares are Totally Hip
Happy Square Root Day! Even Scientific American is talking about it! This holiday comes only 9 times a century (and 9 is my favorite number), so please do something to celebrate.
For example, choose to eat square foods—preferably made from some sort of root. You could cut a potato into a cube, then cut it into 15 slices and fry them up. Eat the slices in groups of 3, 3, and 9. If you don’t have any square and/or root foods available, just try to eat or drink in groups of 3 and 9.
Or watch the trailer for the upcoming Tim Burton Movie, 9, and send it to 3 friends with the instructions that they should each send it to 3 friends. (But that’s it, okay? It’s a mathematical celebration, not a chain meme.)
It’s also a great day to learn shortcuts for typing the square root symbol (√)!
Mac OSX: option + v
Windows: alt + 0251
Number code: √
Character code: 221A
If you choose to celebrate Square Root Day, please leave a comment to share what you did!
In related news, I would like to publicly apologize for disappointing my friend John on Febrary 13. I neglected to blog about 1234567890 Day. Perhaps this little factoid will help with my redemption: I cherish the memory of my mixed 4th/5th grade class pausing to celebrate sequential numbers at 1:23:45pm on 6/7/89.
March of ’09 is pretty special because it’s the only month in each century wherein one may celebrate both Square Root Day and Pi Day (3/14). It’s also my dad’s birthday!
Dad is a scientist and fairly geeky in his own right, so I happily explained to him over the phone what a special day it was to have a birthday. He told me to have fun with whatever fumes I was huffing. Happy Birthday, you crotchety ol’ smartass! Love you!
Yay! My dad’s birthday was yesterday. He didn’t get to enjoy Square Root Day but he’s pretty crotchety too.
9 is definitely in my list of movies to see now! How cool that it will be released on 9/9/9! And so cool that yesterday was square root day. Too bad I didn’t read your blog until today, but I did eat a square meal yesterday!
LaTeX’s \sqrt command is much more flexible: http://trial.kma.zcu.cz/Dokumenty_Manualy/latex/TeXhelp/ltx-126.html
Don’t forget the Ides of March. Or as I like to call it, Kill a Tyrant day.
Two questions. One, what is a keyboard shortcut for typing the pi symbol?
Two, is there still a Pi(e) Day Party? I am tremendously excited about this prospect.
In my magnanimity I forgive you for your oversight.
I didn’t conciously plan anything for square root day but it must have been a cosmic event. Why? That night I had to write three essays and each were three paragraphs long. They took me a combined ninety minutes or thirty minutes each, on average.
Mom, I will happily agree that a square meal counts! Hee hee.
Thanks for the link, Mike.
Camilla, I promise not to forget the Ides of March.
You guys are all awesome.