Tuesday, March 3, 2009

3/3/09 Happy Square root day today

(image found on Scientific American magazine)
Well folks it is Square Root day today, March 3rd two thousand nine. The day where the month squared by the day equals the year number 3^3 = 9.

Scientifc American Magazine has this to say about it:

"Math lovers and numerologists take note: Today, March 3, 2009, is square root day.

The
unofficial holiday comes around but nine times a century, when the numbers of the calendar align so that the month and day are each equal to the square root of the year as expressed in two-digit form. (In today's case, 3/3/09, 3 is the square root of 9—in other words, 32 = 3 x 3 = 9.) Square root days arise in every year whose last two digits are a perfect square, or a number whose square root is a whole number: The last square root day was on February 2, 2004 (2/2/04), and the next occurrence will be on April 4, 2016 (4/4/16).

A square root day group on Facebook, boasting more than 2,400 members, suggests celebrating the minor mathematical oddity by eating radishes or other roots—cut into spot-on squares, of course.

Because of the nature of perfect squares, the wait time between square root days increases by two years each time as the century unfolds—five years separated the previous square root day from today's, seven years will pass before the next square root day in 2016, and nine years will elapse before the following one in 2025. But after the final square root of this century, September 9, 2081 (9/9/81), there will be a slightly prolonged layover before the 22nd century starts its own run of square root days on January 1, 2101 (1/1/01)."

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