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28 thoughts on “Today is Transcendental Day”

    2. Silver

      Of course. But it is hard to define a specific day to celebrate e. Or perhaps it should be celebrated every day. I'm up for that.

    3. Steve_OH

      While I get your point, I think the most interesting thing about π is the way that it shows up in places seemingly unrelated to circles (e.g., Leibniz formula, Basel problem, etc.). In those places, you can find a circle if you look hard enough, but it's usually far from obvious.

    4. ScentOfViolets

      'The bands I listen to are better than the bands you listen to.' Usually false, as sophomoric games one-upmanship tend to be. Except in this case. Yes kids, Ben Folds really is better than Joey Ramone. Because Ben Folds can do a Joey Ramone, but Joey Ramone could never do Ben folds 😉

      IOW, I know a couple of ways to get pi from Euler's number, but not the other way around. Maybe someone can enlighten me as to how - considering the types who post here I wouldn't be surprised at all if this were the case

            1. MontyTheClipArtMongoose

              Unfortunately, in a prelude to supply chain shortages under Biden, there were no sedatives for Mr. Ramone.

  4. Ken Rhodes

    This post gives me a great quote to hold onto.

    When my wife tells me she can't reason with me--I'm irrational--now I can reply "no dear, I'm not irrational, I'm just transcendental."

  7. mertensiana

    It's only pi day in base 10.  For example, in base 5 pi is 3.03232214... .  In base 2 it's 11.0010010000111111... .

  9. akapneogy

    Pi is a great symbol of the transcendental. In his essay "The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics in the Physical Sciences," Eugene Wigner writes of his encounter with a shoe shop owner. The owner wishes to know if he can order shoes of different sizes more efficiently. Wigner assures him that there is a way and goes on to explain to him normal distributions and Gaussian curves. The man points to pi in the formula and asks what is this? Wigner explains that it is the ratio of the circumference to the diameter of a circle. The man says: "Now I'm sure you're joking! What has that ratio got to do with my shoes?"

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