Happy Tau Day!
On Pi Day, a friend sent me a link to the Tau Manifesto. Now, the author does make many interesting and valid points, although as a professional pedant, I feel the need to point out that he is reaching with his argument for the area of the circle. There are good physical reasons for the structure of the formulas of kinetic and elastic energies (and btw his equation for the object in free fall is only valid for dropped objects, although that's beside the point). If the area of the circle were related to the energies, then he'd have a stronger argument, but what he's doing is just a mathematical exercise. So is his manipulation of Euler's equation; to bring back the fifth constant he writes 1 + 0, which is more than ugly. It's silly.
Also? His argument that a simple substitution means we wouldn't have to replace all the math textbooks confuses me a bit. If he means you can just reprint university textbooks and sell the new editions to the next batch, well, that happens all the time anyway. But it also means he has never had to buy textbooks for a public school board. Replacing entire sets of class texts? Yeah, right. Oh, let's not forget about all the calculators we'll need to replace, and the software programs (because I just checked, and tau() isn't a function in my spreadsheet software). Not economically viable. And it'd be even more pedagogically confusing to tell 13-year-olds "Hey, your textbook is wrong because of something that you might not even learn about for another five years. Trust me."
Look at me, ranting. Actually, I'm not even invested in this. Like I said, he makes many valid points; I'm just bothered by a few weak arguments. But really? I'm content to let the Great Mathematical Council battle it out. And I'm all for another day to celebrate math with food.
I'm more concerned with how we're supposed to celebrate Tau Day. There is no food that sounds like tau. In fact, there is no English word that sounds like tau, so even punning is out, except for some philosophical ones that don't really relate to math. But that isn't as worrisome as the food thing.
Some clever friends have suggested that what we need is tea. And two pies. Totally on board with that.
On Pi Day, a friend sent me a link to the Tau Manifesto. Now, the author does make many interesting and valid points, although as a professional pedant, I feel the need to point out that he is reaching with his argument for the area of the circle. There are good physical reasons for the structure of the formulas of kinetic and elastic energies (and btw his equation for the object in free fall is only valid for dropped objects, although that's beside the point). If the area of the circle were related to the energies, then he'd have a stronger argument, but what he's doing is just a mathematical exercise. So is his manipulation of Euler's equation; to bring back the fifth constant he writes 1 + 0, which is more than ugly. It's silly.
Also? His argument that a simple substitution means we wouldn't have to replace all the math textbooks confuses me a bit. If he means you can just reprint university textbooks and sell the new editions to the next batch, well, that happens all the time anyway. But it also means he has never had to buy textbooks for a public school board. Replacing entire sets of class texts? Yeah, right. Oh, let's not forget about all the calculators we'll need to replace, and the software programs (because I just checked, and tau() isn't a function in my spreadsheet software). Not economically viable. And it'd be even more pedagogically confusing to tell 13-year-olds "Hey, your textbook is wrong because of something that you might not even learn about for another five years. Trust me."
Look at me, ranting. Actually, I'm not even invested in this. Like I said, he makes many valid points; I'm just bothered by a few weak arguments. But really? I'm content to let the Great Mathematical Council battle it out. And I'm all for another day to celebrate math with food.
I'm more concerned with how we're supposed to celebrate Tau Day. There is no food that sounds like tau. In fact, there is no English word that sounds like tau, so even punning is out, except for some philosophical ones that don't really relate to math. But that isn't as worrisome as the food thing.
Some clever friends have suggested that what we need is tea. And two pies. Totally on board with that.
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