Happy PI day!

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AndrewMeronek
Posts: 1487
Joined: Mar 30, 2018

by AndrewMeronek »

A child exclaimed to his father: "I learned 'pi r squared' today at school!" To which the father replied, "That's crazy. It's well known that cornbread are square; pie are round!"
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harrisonreed
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Joined: Aug 17, 2018

by harrisonreed »

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BGuttman
Posts: 7368
Joined: Mar 22, 2018

by BGuttman »

And we had pie for dessert yesterday; not today.

And nobody here is nerd enough to know what Pi Day is :(
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AndrewMeronek
Posts: 1487
Joined: Mar 30, 2018

by AndrewMeronek »

lol - those pies look pretty good!

Around where I live we have this:

https://www.achatzpies.com/

Also, pretty good!
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LeTromboniste
Posts: 1634
Joined: Apr 11, 2018

by LeTromboniste »

Only in the US of A!
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harrisonreed
Posts: 6479
Joined: Aug 17, 2018

by harrisonreed »

The place I recommended in Colorado has some of the best Key Lime pie I've ever had.

But I'd go even more for an apple pie from this joint in Karuizawa and Kamakura:

https://no1marco.com/

America has nothing on Japan when it comes to apple pie. Or Italy, apparently.
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BGuttman
Posts: 7368
Joined: Mar 22, 2018

by BGuttman »

[quote="LeTromboniste"]Only in the US of A![/quote]

That's true. In Europe 3.14.xx would be the 3rd day of the 14th month. That doesn't work.
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AndrewMeronek
Posts: 1487
Joined: Mar 30, 2018

by AndrewMeronek »

And of course if you consider pizza to be a type of pie (which it IS!), we have this:

[url]https://louis-pizza.foodjoyy.com/
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sacfxdx
Posts: 406
Joined: Apr 11, 2018

by sacfxdx »

[quote="BGuttman"]And nobody here is nerd enough to know what Pi Day is :([/quote]

Speak for yourself. We all play trombone so there's some nerd in all of us. :-)
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harrisonreed
Posts: 6479
Joined: Aug 17, 2018

by harrisonreed »

[quote="AndrewMeronek"]And of course if you consider pizza to be a type of pie (which it IS!), we have this:

[url]https://louis-pizza.foodjoyy.com/[/quote]

Sign me up for that
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Posaunus
Posts: 5018
Joined: Mar 23, 2018

by Posaunus »

<I>Pi Day</I> contribution from our 12-year-old grandson (an accomplished baker!).
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ghmerrill
Posts: 2193
Joined: Apr 02, 2018

by ghmerrill »

[quote="BGuttman"]And nobody here is nerd enough to know what Pi Day is :([/quote]
C'mon, man! Now tell me you've never heard and chanted ...

E**x dy/dx

E**x dx

Cosine, secant, tangent, sine

3.14159

...
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BGuttman
Posts: 7368
Joined: Mar 22, 2018

by BGuttman »

[quote="sacfxdx"]<QUOTE author="BGuttman" post_id="270221" time="1741991629" user_id="53">
And nobody here is nerd enough to know what Pi Day is :([/quote]

Speak for yourself. We all play trombone so there's some nerd in all of us. :-)
</QUOTE>

I know what Pi Day is. None of the geezer residents and none of the staff seem to know what Pi Day is!
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TomWest
Posts: 73
Joined: Apr 04, 2023

by TomWest »

I’m eating pizza pi tonight.
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officermayo
Posts: 654
Joined: Jun 09, 2021

by officermayo »

Pi Day at Casa de Mayo
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Kbiggs
Posts: 1768
Joined: Mar 24, 2018

by Kbiggs »

Custard tarts tonight. Our freezer door was left open, so our choice was made.

Some of the best pie I’ve ever had came from the Multnomah Pie Shop in Portland OR, and the Snohomish Pie Shop in Snohomish WA. Apple, berry, peach. Mm-mm!
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AndrewMeronek
Posts: 1487
Joined: Mar 30, 2018

by AndrewMeronek »

[quote="harrisonreed"]But I'd go even more for an apple pie from this joint in Karuizawa and Kamakura:

https://no1marco.com/

America has nothing on Japan when it comes to apple pie. Or Italy, apparently.[/quote]

I've never been to Japan but I have some friends who have, and yes Japan is kind of known for having some very fun and creative and GREAT takes on food.
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PhilE
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by PhilE »

Correct me if I'm wrong but as far as I know the US is the only country that writes the dates that way (mm/dd/yy).
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Posaunus
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Joined: Mar 23, 2018

by Posaunus »

[quote="PhilE"]Correct me if I'm wrong but as far as I know the US is the only country that writes the dates that way (mm/dd/yy).[/quote]

We're forced to do it that way. Otherwise we'd have to create a 14th month to have a Pi Day! :clever:

I'm sure there's an equally important reason for us to adhere to the outdated "U.S. Customary Measurement System" (inches, feet, miles, acres, cubits, ounces, pounds, board-feet, drams, tablespoons, pints, quarts, gallons, acre feet, pecks, bushels, ephahs, barrels, degrees Fahrenheit, Btus, ...). :idk:
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AndrewMeronek
Posts: 1487
Joined: Mar 30, 2018

by AndrewMeronek »

[quote="PhilE"]Correct me if I'm wrong but as far as I know the US is the only country that writes the dates that way (mm/dd/yy).[/quote]

You're right as far as I know. I'm not a fan, although it's fun to use our format for things like PI day.

I prefer when writing signatures to always use the format ddMMMyyyy where MMM is the alphabetic shorthand for a month. For example, today would be 17MAR2025. I think that is pretty unambiguous no matter where one lives.
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JohnL
Posts: 2529
Joined: Mar 23, 2018

by JohnL »

[quote="Posaunus"]I'm sure there's an equally important reason for us to adhere to the outdated "U.S. Customary Measurement System" (inches, feet, miles, acres, cubits, ounces, pounds, board-feet, drams, tablespoons, pints, quarts, gallons, acre feet, pecks, bushels, ephahs, barrels, degrees Fahrenheit, Btus, ...).[/quote]
Cultural/institutional inertia, combined with a need for backwards compatibility with a mind-numbingly huge installed base.
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ghmerrill
Posts: 2193
Joined: Apr 02, 2018

by ghmerrill »

There's also a conceptual confusion/conflation buried in the cultural/institutional inertia. To wit: grams and kilograms are not in fact units of weight, as the pound is. So those who favor the metric system favor measurement in terms of mass (kilograms) rather than weight (newtons). If you take a kilogram into a gravity-free field, it's still a kilogram. But if you take a pound into a gravity-free field the pound disappears (so to speak). Since any object being "weighed" will vary depending on where it's weighed (say on the earth vs. the moon), then most people who use the metric system may have things all wrong. They have a good measure of weight (the newton), but they don't seem to like to use it.

Since we all measure weight with scales that actually measure ... er ... weight (and not mass), a scale that measures in grams or kilograms is just wrong most of the time.

Of course, no one seems to care about this ... except ... well, you know ... "nerds". The "U.S." (more historically accurate, the British) system may be "antiquated", but at least it's conceptually consistent and actually assigns a measure of weight (rather than mass) in weighing things. :roll:
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AtomicClock
Posts: 1094
Joined: Oct 19, 2023

by AtomicClock »

[quote="ghmerrill"]grams and kilograms are not in fact units of weight, as the pound is.[/quote]

That's what they teach in physics class, but it's apparently not true. pound-force (weight) and pound-mass are two different units. And when "pound" is used unadorned in legal or economic contexts, my understanding is that pound-mass is what is meant. Even Excel and OpenOffice treat the abbreviations lb as mass and lbf as force.
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ghmerrill
Posts: 2193
Joined: Apr 02, 2018

by ghmerrill »

[quote="AtomicClock"]Even Excel and OpenOffice treat the abbreviations lb as mass and lbf as force.[/quote]

I'm disinclined to use Excel and OpenOffice as my go-to sources for insight into physics. I hope you understand.

I don't recall ever seeing "pound" employed as mass. NASA, for example (though perhaps not as authoritative on such subjects as Excel and OpenOffice), is usually very careful to distinguish these things in their presentations to the public But, yes, there are colloquial (and so inaccurate and incorrect) uses of a variety of scientific (and other) terms. That's pretty much what "colloquial" means -- as I might convey to you by citing the Merriam-Webster authoritative meaning of "colloquial" as "used in or characteristic of familiar and informal conversation; also: unacceptably informal."

But, of course, who's to say what's unacceptable, eh? And with a nod to Charles Lutwidge Dodgson -- people may use words however they like. There are just consequences for that.
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AndrewMeronek
Posts: 1487
Joined: Mar 30, 2018

by AndrewMeronek »

[quote="AtomicClock"]That's what they teach in physics class, but it's apparently not true. pound-force (weight) and pound-mass are two different units. And when "pound" is used unadorned in legal or economic contexts, my understanding is that pound-mass is what is meant. Even Excel and OpenOffice treat the abbreviations lb as mass and lbf as force.[/quote]

Perhaps a fun discussion in of itself. Every profession develops specific standard terminology that is based on colloquial language but different. Think of the following musical terms that can have very different yet related meanings to a layperson:

meter

compression

partial

score

transcribe
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AtomicClock
Posts: 1094
Joined: Oct 19, 2023

by AtomicClock »

Yes, it's important to stay on topic. I'm sorry to say that I had bad pie on Friday. But that's okay, I guess. Pi is a bad constant. I'm on Team Tau all the way. Looking forward to June 28.
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AndrewMeronek
Posts: 1487
Joined: Mar 30, 2018

by AndrewMeronek »

[quote="AtomicClock"]Yes, it's important to stay on topic. I'm sorry to say that I had bad pie on Friday. But that's okay, I guess. Pi is a bad constant. I'm on Team Tau all the way. Looking forward to June 28.[/quote]

lol :good:

What do you do for Tau day?
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AtomicClock
Posts: 1094
Joined: Oct 19, 2023

by AtomicClock »

Two pies
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AndrewMeronek
Posts: 1487
Joined: Mar 30, 2018

by AndrewMeronek »

[quote="AtomicClock"]Two pies[/quote]

Of course!!!
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sacfxdx
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Joined: Apr 11, 2018

by sacfxdx »

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JTeagarden
Posts: 625
Joined: Feb 24, 2025

by JTeagarden »

Thanks, I haven't felt this cool by comparison in a long time, keep the contributions coming.
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Posaunus
Posts: 5018
Joined: Mar 23, 2018

by Posaunus »

... and speaking of the metric system (SI), I just received an article from National Geographic that explains how and why the United States has isolated itself (along with Liberia and Myanmar) as the sole holdouts using "imperial measurements."

Here's part of the article (available to National Geographic subscribers):

[color=#0000BF]What do Liberia, Myanmar, and the United States have in common? Proponents of the metric system claim all three nations have a shameful similarity: They use imperial measurements—feet, pounds, and miles—instead of meters, grams, and kilometers.

The truth, however, is more complicated: Though imperial units are commonly used in the U.S., the metric system is actually the nation’s preferred system of measurement.

So why don’t Americans use it? Here’s how the metric system evolved—and why it’s still struggling to gain a foothold in daily life.

Hiding in plain sight

First, the facts: “It’s been legal to use the metric system in the United States since 1866,” says Elizabeth Benham, program leader of the federal metric program at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the federal agency in charge of standard weights and measures.

In fact, government policy since the 1970s has designated the metric system—also known as SI, or the International System of Units—the nation’s preferred system of measurement for trade and commerce. But since the U.S. has adopted a voluntary approach, nudging industries and individuals toward using SI instead of making its use a blanket policy, adoption is turning out to be a multi-century endeavor.
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ghmerrill
Posts: 2193
Joined: Apr 02, 2018

by ghmerrill »

I don't really care because it's all a matter of convention. However, a practical consequence is that I have to maintain two distinct sets of tools. And my most recently acquired tool is a digital caliper that will (finally! :clever: ) render its measurements either in decimal inches, fractional inches, or millimeters/centimeters. I don't have to do that math in my head any longer. :roll: