Square Root Day by Paul B. '11
Your daily dose of nerd humor.
Did any of you notice today was a square root day? I didn’t, until I got a friendly email reminding me of this rare mathematical oddity:
“Today, 3/3/09, is square root day, which only occurs nine times each century. 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.”
This is part of why I love MIT – people here actually appreciate this kind of joke.
(In related news, Pi Day is only eleven days away. Get pysched!)
Appropriately, our school’s math team just got its T-shirts today…
They actually mentioned it on the news where I live. Also, Pi Day falls the day before our spring break starts. Yippee!
I went to sleep around 4 AM, looked at my digital clock, and went “huh, 3×3 makes 9! how interesting!” (without having read any email about this).
And then I see this!
“MIT-ness” is really growing on me…I don’t know if this is a good thing or a bad thing .___.
ps. People born in 2050 will be so shafted. They’ll experience their first “square root day” when they’re 31! (while most of us should have experienced ’01, ’04, ’09 by now – and if you’re older, then ’81)
On second thought, oops, I totally skipped 2064, LOL.
The fact that people actually appreciate the many meanings things might have and enjoy them either as a joke or a fact is one of the many reasons I love MIT!
I hope I get accepted!
Ha!!
Beautiful
I didn’t notice it’s square root day until i listened to the radio this morning.
And both last year and this year, my prom will be on pi day!
things i did in last 4 hours
i realized my birth date 28 march 1987
my student id > 078942
reverse birthdate > 7891382 (3 for march)
789|1+3-8|2 = 78942
my birth.year -my birth.month – my birth.day
1987 – 3 – 28 = 1956
1956 – 1 =1955 (einstein died)
2009 – 1955 = 54 (fifty four years ago einstein died)
5th of April 2009 (5/4/09)
but he died in 18 april, anyway 5+4=9
Psh, today’s not a real square root day. The next one will be on 45/45/2025.
It totally is. Don’t know why I didn’t think of it. That’s an epic idea.
Paul: which fraternity are you a member of?
It would be really fitting (and would also make me a happy camper) if the decisions were delivered to the anxious, nervous, and excited folks like us on the Pi day! Come on it’s also Einstein’s birthday
.
i’m in group 3 in our technical report writing course
my instructor’s office number is 303
submitting draft is 33 percent
our classroom is in mechanical engineerig room ME113
this is the 3rd english course i’m taking
linear algebra teacher office number is 239
first day of classes this semester was 2 march 2009 (2/3/09)
@Anon: I’m in Phi Kappa Sigma, also known as Skullhouse on campus.
@Infinity Anonymous: Cute.
Oh my, pi day! Here in Severna Park we get intense at pi day. The English teachers celebrate it as well.
I noticed but why the psych ask cos there is really noone that will appreciate that over here so I just zipped my air and made sure it did not smell in the sound in the rhythm of my “genius”
How beautiful???!!! Square root day brings so much comment.
hi ,,,,,,,,,
i am a high school student
could u help me in become a MITiian in d future
pleeeeeeeeeezzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
and about ur so called joke it wasn’t a joke after all , it was a fact
anyways thank u for the fact
Why is it that every applicant to MIT wants to learn how to hack?
Unless my definition of hack is something else, feel free to let me know what this “hack” is
i wanna join MIT what are the admission procedures to get there??????
plz help me
join as an undergraduate for aerospace engg.
@Jesline:
Applications are closed for this year, but you can apply again next year by going to my.mit.edu.
Seems like your running out of things to blog about.. is there a quota on blog entries?
@The Truth:
Actually, I have plenty of things I want to blog about: I’m just really busy with things like – you know – studying. Hopefully some longer entries will appear this weekend, when I have more time.
In the meantime, I’ll continue to share the small but awesome things I observe throughout my daily life, which is why I blogged about this.
on a very random note about repetition days…
07/07/07 was my 16th birthday!
Sq root day? I admit, it’s kinky – but it isn’t as aesthetically beautiful as a symmetrical date. For example, 03-30-1991 (a.k.a. my d.o.b.) There was a nice one just past, 02-20-2002 but these babies are pretty rare; they only come six times in a century. Nothing beats pi day, though…
Wouldn’t 10-10-2100 technically be a square day?
And for that matther, 11-11-2121 and 12-12-2144 would also be square days, so people born in the late 21st century will get to experience myriad square days!
I would have been very worried if this wasn’t brought up in the MIT blogs…THANK you for bringing one of the best days ever to a beautiful end! (note the time-zone difference :/)
œÄ day will be amazing as always, but come on. who’s not excited for 11:11 11/11 2011? too bad we’re no longer in the 12th century or we’d have a bunch of binary days…
Cool fact. I didn’t know/notice either until I saw my friend’s facebook status ^.^
@ Paul: Yes, I realize that Pi Day is coming and I’m already making arrangements to celebrate it in the chat on MyMIT.info and to celebrate it in real life. Plus, it’s Einstein’s Birthday.
Am I the only one thinking that Pi Day/Einstein’s Birthday should be an international holiday?
Yes Colton. I believe you’re the only one.
=P
I was wondering why 4-2-02 and 9-3-03 weren’t included. That way, we could celebrate this wonderful holiday twice more every century! Then I realized that adding those two in would make 11 square root days instead of the current 9, and 9 is a perfect square.
I turned 17 today!
The offbeat sense of Humor of MIT people really made me apply for admission and of course the hacking!
That is so cool!! Its funny how people how so ignorant to notice these little things… people like me, for example.
Well, at least square root days are nicely spaced out through the centuries so if you’re reasonably lucky you’ll live through a few. The more obvious repetition days (07/07/07, etc) are all clustered at the beginning.
It’s funny, I first noticed today because of an MIT friend of mine’s facebook status.
11 days………………….ahh…..glorious pi day………
Cool… Does infinite day exist if so when is it?
Curious face: It does. Last year, on August 8, you turned your calendar sideways.
Anon above me: you cannot be serious.
I thought it was pretty clever, if I do say so myself.
As interesting as that is, it’s not really a joke.
Hey Paul,
I have a question about a math class I should take in spring term that I was wondering if you could answer. I’m looking to go into Biological Engineering and I didn’t know which class would be better.
I applied to MIT this year, and even if I don’t get in, I figure whatever you say will apply almost anywhere.
Could I e-mail you my question?
Thanks.
@Jon: Sure, feel free to email me.
square days–i never knew about them, they are quite cool actually, just like pi day.
Oh yeah, Pi Day is coming! If only we lived in 1915, then it would actually be 3.1415. Or 1529. That would be so cool.
And I completely agree with Colton. Pi Day/Einstein’s Birthday should be an International (or at least a better celebrated) Holiday.
plz help me i want to tke admission in engeering courses offered by mit,,plz mail me on [email protected] or [email protected]
@Colton and Others
I dont understand how one can celebrate PI Day.
Do throw some light on it!
@Paul
Any inside info or update on admission decisions?
Celebrate Pi day?
1. Draw this logo everywhere.
O
=
[Area of circle / Diameter]
2. You’ve heard of alphabet soup. Now make numbers pie.
3. Wear a Pi hat, something that looks like the greek letter (complete with earmuffs for this cold).
@Colton
it’s also the day of Linux 1.0.0 release
pi day and penguin day
Unfortunately they divide me by c
if i multiply myself by c, I’m again 3/28
Rydberg constant = 1.097373 m^-1
c = 299792458 m/s
Rydberg constant * c = 3.28
multiplication by the speed of light, March 28, my birthday;
unit in seconds, it’s my time
pfff PI DAY!
Do you Americans know that not everywhere date format is mm/dd/yy?
We have dd/mm/yy, which I find much more logical.
we have no PI DAY then.
uhm, maybe a kind of on 3rd january 2041 -> 3.1.42
ha! that’s why it’s so great to be american! we just HAVE to switch the month and day around in the date and use miles for our roads.
i remember sqrt day. the vp of our math club kept yelling at me “today is sqrt day!” and i didn’t get it until i was about to go to bed…i was pretty disappointed in myself.
I agree with Colton. Cummon…Einstein’s birthday! Pi Day!
(The exclamation marks don’t really help, do they? Hmph.)
Pi day… hmmm wouldn’t that be 3-14-16? :D
I’m just angry because I only realized it was square root day on 3/4/09 -_-
@ ayaz
Hacking at MIT is basically pranking.
would love to email you the original info. on Square Root Day–I’m the “father” of it—dates back to 9/9/81 with a Washington Post story—we have a contest for this one running another week–please phone or email me—cell (650) 787-7381; home (650) 364-0652——-p.s. we’re less than 2 months from Odd Day, but that’s another story. Congrats on MIT–I’m “just” a Cal grad, but we do our best!!give me a call, Regards, ron
p.s. Square Root Day is kind of like Pi day without the dessert—but we do have root beer in square glasses—can we email cartoons with this to you to include?? [email protected]—and after Odd Day (5/7/9), we have Romeo and Juliet Day–1/2/35–(“where four art thou”)—but that’s a few years out and I’m crossing fingers to be here then–let’s stay with the contest first—$339 in prizes. Do well and it’s kind of like MIT (Money In the Till)—can you folks pass our info on to other campuses??(by definition, other=non-MIT)
Square root day rocks!