An Irrational Night

"It can be of no practical use to know that Pi is irrational, but if we can know, it surely would be intolerable not to know." 
                              -- Edward Charles Titchmarsh

Saturday, March 14, 2015:

It was π (Pi) day, celebrating the mathematical constant approximated as 3.14159265359.

This year's event had particular significance because the day, written as 3/14/15, contained all the first five digits of Pi.

To winnow the significance down to seconds, some say the times 9:26:53 (am and pm) were particularly special moments because they could be expressed as 3/14/15 9:26:53, containing the first 10 digits of Pi.

But here's where the Pi fight came in: Others argue that 9:26:54 was the more significant time, because the 11th digit of Pi is 5, so when expressed in only 10 digits, the 10th digit 3 should be rounded up to 4, hence, it would be expressed as 3.141592654, best represented at 3/14/15 9:26:54.

I sided with the rounded team since pies are generally round (with Pi as the ratio of their circumference to their diameter.) 

Regardless, everything at the store -- every purchase rang up; every exchange of money; every calculation; every number added, subtracted and multiplied; every number recorded in the shift and daily reports . . . everything seemed to come up Pi.

Nothing is more American than pie, and at the store we sell All American Pies. They're rectangular, not round, but better than cake. Between 9:25:53 pm and 9:25:54 pm I rapidly and piggishly ate a blackberry pie, a lemon pie, a cherry pie and approximately 14.1 percent of an apple pie.

It was an odd night; everything and everybody seemed unusually irrational.