Math nerds and science buffs the world over are celebrating Pi Day today, a most unusual (but tasty) of holidays celebrated every March 14th. (Here’s a non-nerd explainer for the uninitiated.) However, this year’s event was made even more unique by an alignment between the date (3/14/15) and the time (9:26). Added together, the numbers read out as 3.1415926 — the first eight numbers of Pi.
Too bad Neil deGrasse Tyson thinks we’re all a bit silly for celebrating at all. Why? I’ll let Neil take this one:
Crazy Pi-Day nears. But only if you write the month first, the day second, and a two-decimal truncated year third. 03/14/15
— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) March 13, 2015
Only the United States and, to varying degrees, Canada use this Gregorian form of calendar dating. Everyone else writes the day first, which would portray today’s date as 14/3/15. Nothing Pi about that.
Naturally, Tyson’s tweet drew the kind of ire that only social media can produce. He granted one alternative position for a moment, but quickly shot it down:
If you instead write the day first, then no Pi-Day for you. Blame April for not having 31 days: 31/4/15 : – (
— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) March 13, 2015
Despite his Sheldon Cooper-ish approach to the nerdy holiday, Tyson eventually relented. How? By tweeting more trivia about Pi and Pi Day, that’s how:
Happy Birthday to all Pi-Day people. Including @BillyCrystal @TheMichaelCaine Apollo Astronaut Frank Borman & Albert Einstein
— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) March 14, 2015
Best Pi-Day Ever: 53 minutes & 58 seconds after 6 o’clock, March 14, the year 1592: 3/14/1592; 6:53:58
— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) March 14, 2015
Best Pi-Day of the future: 6 minutes & 53 seconds after 2 o’clock, May 9 (or Sept 5), the year 3141: 3141/5/9; 2:6:53
— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) March 14, 2015
He also threatened to do the impossible:
My next tweet will contain every single digit of Pi…
— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) March 14, 2015
Get your Geek on. Time to fit all the digits of Pi into a single tweet: Pi in base Pi = 10
— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) March 14, 2015
You still tried to ruin Pi Day, Neil. I’m just going to go and eat all these pies I made with my friends because (1) pies are delicious, and (2) AMERICA F*CK YEAH.
(Via Neil deGrasse Tyson)