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Days of mathematical significance

It’s not the most obvious of things to celebrate, but it turns out that yesterday was Square Root Day.

This day, celebrated by mathematicians the world over (those who know about it, that is), falls on any date when the day and the month are both the square root of the last two digits of the current year (are you keeping up?). 3 March 2009 can be expressed as 3/3/09, so it becomes a Square Root Day. Many numerically-minded celebrants will be cutting root vegetables into squares to mark the occasion.

The previous Square Root Day was 2 February 2004, and the next will be 4 April 2016 - so people throughout the world will no doubt be kicking themselves having missed this one…

But don’t worry! There’s another maths holiday this month - Pi Day. The value of pi is 3.14 (ish), so the American dating system puts Pi Day on Saturday 14 March. Apparently the most suitable way to celebrate is to make a Pi Pie and walk around in circles.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .