Square root of Christmas

Wednesday 4 March 2009This is over 15 years old. Be careful.

Chris Wilson notices a mathematical-calendrical quirk: if March 5th is 35, then 35×35 = 1225 means that March 5th squared is December 25th, so March 5th is the square root of Christmas! Pair this with Pi Day (3/14), and you get a nerd celebration:

I hereby declare that:

  • March 5th shall be known as the Square Root of Christmas and
  • The 10-day interval between the Square Root of Christmas and Pi Day shall be known as Nerdigras

Let the festivities begin!

Comments

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Ancient joke: why do programmers confuse Christmas and Halloween?

Because DEC 25 == OCT 31
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I'm afraid Europeans and other ISO-following countries won't be able to join you in the festivities...
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Also: 3/3/09 was Square Root day.
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I am calling 9/9/09 Negativity Day ('nein, nein, nein') but that's still a ways off.
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Euro Pi Day is surely 22/7 . Celebrate with python and pie.
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@Robert, I think you gave us a good start!

On the fifth day of Nerdigras, my imaginary girlfriend gave to me, five golden ratios! Four calling stacks, three unmatched parens, two turtle functions, and a hash map in a B-tree.
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When is the Airing of Grievances?
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@Ned, how about:

On the sixth day of Nerdigras, my imaginary girlfriend gave to me, six trees sp-laying, five golden ratios! four calling stacks, three unmatched parens, two turtle functions, and a hash map in a B-tree.
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For these 10 days, we no longer say YES, we say AFFIRMATIVE. (Flight of the Conchords allusion)
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Jonathon Duerig 4:30 PM on 5 Mar 2009
I'll add a couple of verses:

On the seventh day of Nerdigras, my girlfriend gave to me, seven pointers dangling, six trees sp-laying, five golden ratios! four calling stacks, three unmatched parens, two turtle functions, and a hash map in a B-tree.

On the eighth day of Nerdigras, my girlfriend gave to me, a byte, seven pointers dangling, six trees sp-laying, five golden ratios! four calling stacks, three unmatched parens, two turtle functions, and a hash map in a B-tree.
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On the ninth day of Nerdigras, my imaginary girlfriend gave to me, a printout of Graham's Number, one corrupted byte, seven pointers dangling, six trees sp-laying, five golden ratios! four calling stacks, three unmatched parens, two turtle functions, and a hash map in a B-tree.
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Also heard that yesterday was Brass Band Day--"March Forth," nyuk nyuk.
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Hey guys, haven't you written poetry before - it needs to scan better.

On the eighth day of nerdigras my nerd love gave to me eight bits a zeroed, seven pointers dangling, six trees a splaying, five golden threads, four calling stacks, three base tens, two turtle funcs and a hash map in a balanced search tree.
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@Rob: yes, affirmative!
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I vote we leave the last lyric open for improv.
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Jonathon Duerig 12:49 AM on 6 Mar 2009
@Tony: I thought it would be a deliberately awkward pause to emphasize the 'a byte' thing. But we can use your version instead if you want.

@Kelly: But there are 012 days in Nerdigras based on the original post. So I suppose that we should just count up to 012 since it looks more similar to the original.

So the full song would go like this:

---

On the oh-first day of Nerdigras, my imaginary girlfriend gave to me a hash map in a B-Tree.

On the oh-second day of Nerdigras my imaginary girlfriend gave to me two Turtle functions and a hash map in a B-Tree.

On the oh-third day of Nerdigras my imaginary girlfriend gave to me, three unmatched parens, two Turtle functions, and a hash map in a B-Tree.

On the oh-fourth day of Nerdigras my imaginary girlfriend gave to me, four calling stacks, three unmatched parens, two Turtle functions, and a hash map in a B-Tree.

On the oh-fifth day of Nerdigras, my imaginary girlfriend gave to me, five golden ratios! Four calling stacks, three unmatched parens, two turtle functions, and a hash map in a B-tree.

On the oh-sixth day of Nerdigras, my imaginary girlfriend gave to me, six trees sp-laying, five golden ratios! four calling stacks, three unmatched parens, two turtle functions, and a hash map in a B-tree.

On the oh-seventh day of Nerdigras, my imaginary girlfriend gave to me, seven pointers dangling, six trees sp-laying, five golden ratios! four calling stacks, three unmatched parens, two turtle functions, and a hash map in a B-tree.

On the oh-tenth day of Nerdigras, my girlfriend gave to me eight bits a zeroed, seven pointers dangling, six trees sp-laying, five golden ratios! four calling stacks, three unmatched parens, two turtle functions, and a hash map in a B-tree.

On the oh-eleventh day of Nerdigras, my imaginary girlfriend gave to me, a printout of Graham's Number, one corrupted byte, seven pointers dangling, six trees sp-laying, five golden ratios! four calling stacks, three unmatched parens, two turtle functions, and a hash map in a B-tree.

On the oh-twelfth day of Nerdigras, my imaginary girlfriend gave to me, [insert lyric here], a printout of Graham's Number, one cornipted byke, seven pointers dangling, six tress sp-laying, five golden ratios! four calling stacks, three unmatched parens, two turtle functions, and a hash map in a B-tree.
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Since I started this, maybe I can wrap it up with one last (ha!) iteration.

On the twelth day of nerdigras I sent my ISP...
❧ 12 fracking fractals
❧ 11 puns so stunning
❧ 10 bits a twiddling
❧ 7 pointers dangling
❧ 6 trees a splaying
❧ Fiiiive RFID rings
❧ 4 calling stacks
❧ 3 unmatched parens
❧ 2 Power Gloves
      (all together now!)
❧ ... and a hash map in a B-treeeee!
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Here's another one from the 1970s: PDP-11 day, celebrated twice a year, both on DEC 11 and OCT 13.
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Happy 10th anniversary of Nerdigras!!

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