Comments on: Some kind of hidden mathematical poetry

Some kind of hidden mathematical poetry

chavenet — Tue, 16 Sep 2025 11:05:09 -0800

On 9/16/25, celebrate a date of mathematical beauty [NPR]

By: kristi

kristi — Tue, 16 Sep 2025 11:39:19 -0800

Okay, wow, this is very cool - and clearly explained! For those of us who like to celebrate Pi Day with pizza pi, may I suggest that it should be fairly easy to find a Sicilian or Detroit-style rectangular pizza and cut it to the appropriate Pythagorean dimensions. This is fun and delightful and wonderfully nerdy. Thank you so much for sharing this, chavenet!

By: ocschwar

ocschwar — Tue, 16 Sep 2025 11:42:55 -0800

Pythagorean triples are particularly interesting when you're putting together Lego Technic set.s

By: kristi

kristi — Tue, 16 Sep 2025 12:13:09 -0800

Also I should totally make a playlist of roots music to listen too in celebration.

By: Mr.Know-it-some

Mr.Know-it-some — Tue, 16 Sep 2025 12:13:20 -0800

I'm waiting to celebrate until September 16, 2564.

By: cardioid

cardioid — Tue, 16 Sep 2025 12:21:40 -0800

You'd better hope September is still the 9th month over 500 years from now.

By: charlesminus

charlesminus — Tue, 16 Sep 2025 12:26:44 -0800

I worked as a steel fabricator and shipbuilder for many years. The 3-4-5 triangle was stock in trade. We used it on a daily basis to check to see if a plate or structure was square/perpendicular. I always felt a bond to those ancient builders who figured this out thousands of years ago.

By: gurple

gurple — Tue, 16 Sep 2025 12:35:16 -0800

Ever since I got done with college and dated classwork I've been more or less free to write dates in the format I prefer, 20250916. So, today is 4500.101776626835 squared! (almost no one likes receiving dates from me in my preferred format, but no one from any country has ever had to ask me whether whether I meant December 3 or March 12)

By: potrzebie

potrzebie — Tue, 16 Sep 2025 14:02:06 -0800

Now I'm regretting I didn't do anything to commemorate 5/12/13, my favorite Pythagorean triple. I'd just given birth a couple weeks before so I guess it's understandable.

By: phax

phax — Tue, 16 Sep 2025 14:08:38 -0800

gurgle: > almost no one likes receiving dates from me in my preferred format Computer folks do. I mean it's not ISO 8601 exactly, but I do personally use it for a lot of stuff, including my own timekeeping.

By: chavenet

chavenet — Tue, 16 Sep 2025 14:30:26 -0800

I'm particularly pretentious and write today's date like this: 2025.ix.16

By: NotLost

NotLost — Tue, 16 Sep 2025 18:29:33 -0800

Well, this is a tangent, but I actually prefer dates with the month written as a word or at least abbreviation. That's always clear.

By: PresidentOfDinosaurs

PresidentOfDinosaurs — Tue, 16 Sep 2025 18:42:28 -0800

this is nonsense. September is the seventh month; it's right in the name.

By: storybored

storybored — Tue, 16 Sep 2025 20:27:13 -0800

Speaking of pizza pi, what would you rather have: a five inch very small pizza plus a twelve inch medium pizza or a fourteen inch pizza? (assuming the prices for these two offers are the same.) Answer: You would want the fourteen inch. Why? because the areas of each pizza is proportional to pi*r-squared which is in turn proportional to pi*diameter-squared. Since 5**2 + 12**2 = 13**2, but 13 < 14, the 14 inch pizza is bigger than the two little ones.

By: Theophrastus Johnson

Theophrastus Johnson — Tue, 16 Sep 2025 20:38:48 -0800

Pythagorean Day? Bah. Puerile. All the cool mathematicians are waiting about a week for Powers Day. September 27. Or, 9/27/25. 9 = 3^2 27 = 3^3 25 = 5^2 And, even: 2025 = 45^2 No we're not done: 9272025 =3045^2 Not your preferred date format? 27092025 = 5202^2 ... No no, for real, while geeking out with a math buddy about the 9/16/25 Pythagorean date today, he also pointed out the existence of Powers Day to me. And as the possibly most geeky detail... he shared the info about Powers Day with me in the form of a Google Calendar invite, so I'll get notifications of all those square numbers a week from Saturday LOL

By: nickmark

nickmark — Wed, 17 Sep 2025 10:38:29 -0800

Man, I wish there was a cool numerical coincidence for October 22.

By: any portmanteau in a storm

any portmanteau in a storm — Wed, 17 Sep 2025 11:56:48 -0800

Wouldn't July 24 this year have also worked? 7/24/25?

By: any portmanteau in a storm

any portmanteau in a storm — Wed, 17 Sep 2025 11:58:40 -0800

I guess it's slightly different as those are the numbers before they've been squared. And they aren't squares themselves (well, except for 25).

By: ob1quixote

ob1quixote — Wed, 17 Sep 2025 12:34:08 -0800

There needs to be a cool date notification I can turn on on my phone.

NotLost: “Well, this is a tangent, but I actually prefer dates with the month written as a word or at least abbreviation. That's always clear.”

I note that I use 'dd month yyyy' in my posts here, which is Oracle date format. (Which I am sure they chose because that's the DoD date format.) For files I always use 'yyyy-mm-dd' because it sorts into chronological order. When I need to record a date on a physical object, e.g., something being inventoried, I also use 'yyyy-mm-dd' because it's usually faster than writing the month as a word.