International holidays - Tau Day

“In the distant constellation Tau Ceti, everything became incomprehensible to us,” this is the beginning of a comic song by VS Vysotsky Its central star, which is located almost 12 light years from Earth, was discovered by astronomers in the 17th century The Tau number was found by calculation in the 3rd century BC This discovery is important for the mathematical community, which most often uses the pi constant of 314 in its calculations The tau number is the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its radius, which is always 628 That is why June 28, ie In the sixth month of the year, Tau Day is celebrated The first use of Tau is attributed to the ancient Greek mathematician and engineer Archimedes (287-212 BC) Some modern scientists believe that in calculations it is necessary to move away from pi, because to work with a circle it is much more convenient to use the tau number Its name in Chinese means “path” or “route”, which is very metaphorical and reflects the importance of this mathematical constant The letter "ταυ" in ancient times was considered a symbol of life and resurrection The Greek alphabet is traditionally used to represent stars in constellations, mathematical terms and concepts This is how Tau Ceti and the Tau number came into being The appearance of a funny celebration is associated with the American Michael Hart In 2010, he published "Manifesto Tau", paying tribute to the number that relates the circumference of a circle to its linear dimension The physicist chose June 28 as the publication date for the book, today known as Tau Day M Hart's work refers to pi as unnatural and confusing According to the author of the manifesto, all the formulas that are used to determine the size of a circle would look simpler if people started using pure Tau The movement in support of this idea was founded at the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries by former University of Utah mathematics professor Robert Palais The scientist also believes that tau simplifies calculations In support of his theory, he published a paper in 2001 entitled "Pi is Wrong" in the journal Mathematical Intelligencer Tau Day is very important not only for promoting the mathematical constant 628 in scientific circles The holiday is a symbol of an alternative form of thinking and the recognition that even professionals tend to make mistakes Switching to tau makes calculations easier, so scientists say it's time to knock pi off its pedestal Traditionally, in honor of the holiday, mathematical puzzles and rebuses are solved And for International Pi Day, which falls on March 14, pies are baked Proponents of tau joke that since its value is two pi numbers, you should eat twice as much birthday cake on June 28th, thus celebrating Tau Day