[EM] [non-electoral mathematics] TauDay [/non-electoral mathematics]

[⸘Ŭalabio‽]

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	**	State of the Tau 2015

	------------------------------------------------------------

	Note: This message can also be read online at the State of the Tau (http://tauday.com/state-of-the-tau?mc_cid=0fb7cfe59c&mc_eid=[UNIQID]) .

	Happy Tau Day (http://tauday.com/?mc_cid=0fb7cfe59c&mc_eid=[UNIQID]) 2015! Interest in the true circle constant (τ = C/r = 6.283185…) and The Tau Manifesto (http://tauday.com/tau-manifesto?mc_cid=0fb7cfe59c&mc_eid=[UNIQID]) continued unabated this year, highlighted by a surge of attention on the “Pi [Half Tau] Day of the Century” (3/14/15). (Tau will have its revenge on 6/28/31—party at my place!) As one of the leaders of the “opposition”, I was invited to the Pi Day festivities at the Exploratorium (http://www.exploratorium.edu/?mc_cid=0fb7cfe59c&mc_eid=[UNIQID]) in San Francisco—the organization that originally created Pi Day—but I was on vacation in Barcelona at the time and was unable to attend. (I know, rough life!) That the invitation was proffered in the first place is an excellent sign, though, as it serves as proof that even the Paladins of Pi recognize tau as a legitimate rival.

	Before getting to the full update, here are three quick announcements:

	*	If you’d like to celebrate Tau Day with me and some of my fellow tauists, RSVP for the First International Virtual Tau Day Meetup (http://taudaymeetup.com/?mc_cid=0fb7cfe59c&mc_eid=[UNIQID]) , which starts at 11:00 a.m. Pacific time on Sunday, June 28.
	*	I’ve re-launched Tau Shirt sales (http://teespring.com/tauday?mc_cid=0fb7cfe59c&mc_eid=[UNIQID]) for a limited time (through June 29).
	*	For this fifth anniversary of Tau Day, I’ve prepared ebook versions of The Tau Manifesto (EPUB, MOBI, PDF), and have also included downloadable copies of both the short and long Tau Talks. The full package is available for only $9 at sales.tauday.com (http://sales.tauday.com/?mc_cid=0fb7cfe59c&mc_eid=[UNIQID]) .

	Here are some of the other highlights since last year’s Tau Day:

	*	I gave a well-received 15-minute talk at the BIL Conference (http://youtu.be/2hhjsSN-AiU?mc_cid=0fb7cfe59c&mc_eid=[UNIQID]) (Los Angeles regional). BIL (http://bilconference.com/?mc_cid=0fb7cfe59c&mc_eid=[UNIQID]) was founded as a sort of counter-conference (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_%26_Ted's_Excellent_Adventure?mc_cid=0fb7cfe59c&mc_eid=[UNIQID]) to TED (https://www.ted.com/?mc_cid=0fb7cfe59c&mc_eid=[UNIQID]) , and it was my pleasure to have the opportunity to prepare a condensed version of the original Tau Talk (http://youtu.be/H69YH5TnNXI?mc_cid=0fb7cfe59c&mc_eid=[UNIQID]) suitable for a general audience.
	*	Inspired by feedback from the BIL talk (http://youtu.be/2hhjsSN-AiU?mc_cid=0fb7cfe59c&mc_eid=[UNIQID]) , I’ve updated The Tau Manifesto (http://tauday.com/tau-manifesto?mc_cid=0fb7cfe59c&mc_eid=[UNIQID]) with some new material, including added emphasis on an important observation: while there are infinitely many two-dimensional shapes with constant diameter, there is only one (the circle) with constant radius.
	*	In case you missed it, tau/2 at Google (https://www.google.com/search?q=tau%2F2&mc_cid=0fb7cfe59c&mc_eid=[UNIQID]) evaluates to 3.14159… This got a big ovation at the BIL Conference talk (http://youtu.be/2hhjsSN-AiU?mc_cid=0fb7cfe59c&mc_eid=[UNIQID]) !
	*	In advance of Half Tau Day, Taylor University hosted the Indiana Mathematical Association of America Spring Section meeting, which featured the Great Tau/Pi Debate (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajr2Btv1KS8&mc_cid=0fb7cfe59c&mc_eid=[UNIQID]) of 2015. Check it out, and decide for yourself who makes the better argument!
	*	Robin Whitty continued to use tau freely in on his site Theorem of the Day (http://theoremoftheday.org/?mc_cid=0fb7cfe59c&mc_eid=[UNIQID]) . In fact, he’s concluded that tau is now well-known enough among his readers that it doesn’t require additional explanation, writing that “Four out of the last 10 theorems I’ve posted at theoremoftheday.org have featured tau and I’ve now given up adding (=2pi) on the assumption that everyone should know by now!”
	*	Joseph Thiebes has created some tau-inspired merchandise at Tau Stuff (http://taustuff.com/?mc_cid=0fb7cfe59c&mc_eid=[UNIQID]) , featuring several different tau pendant designs.
	*	To improve his trigonometry course, mathematics teacher Phil Smith modified a couple of open-source math textbooks to use tau, and has posted the results online at Tau for Trigonometry (http://taufortrig.org/?mc_cid=0fb7cfe59c&mc_eid=[UNIQID]) . Thanks, Phil!
	*	Jose Luis Garcia del Castillo from Fathom Information Design (http://fathom.info/?mc_cid=0fb7cfe59c&mc_eid=[UNIQID]) reports on the success of a second “tau fiesta” called ¡FiesTau! (http://fathom.info/latest/7850?mc_cid=0fb7cfe59c&mc_eid=[UNIQID]) , which involved the “whole office playing Taupardy!, our own Jeopardy-inspired Tau quiz game written in Processing (https://www.processing.org/?mc_cid=0fb7cfe59c&mc_eid=[UNIQID]) [a programming language that supports tau].” They’ve even released the source of Taupardy! (https://github.com/garciadelcastillo/Taupardy?mc_cid=0fb7cfe59c&mc_eid=[UNIQID]) , so now anyone can play! Fathom Information Design is also the maker of Peep in Tau (http://fathom.info/tau?mc_cid=0fb7cfe59c&mc_eid=[UNIQID]) , an app that lets you search for a number of your choice in the digits of tau.
	*	Joseph Lindenberg (https://sites.google.com/site/taubeforeitwascool/?mc_cid=0fb7cfe59c&mc_eid=[UNIQID]) shares an analogy he’s found useful in explaining tau to the uninitiated:

	Using tau instead of pi makes math clearer, and thus easier to understand.

	Using pi is like having a weird car whose odometer and speedometer display half-miles and half-miles-per-hour, while all the road signs show miles and miles-per-hour.

	(The road signs of math are naturally in units of tau.)

	So you constantly have to convert between what your car says and what the road signs say. 55 mile-per-hour speed limit? Make sure your speedometer needle doesn’t go over 110. But instead of nice round numbers like 55, imagine the sign says 68.7 miles-per-hour. So your speedometer needle shouldn’t go above… how much? Your trip odometer reads 35.7. So you’ve traveled… how many miles?

	Sometimes you must multiply by 2. Sometimes you must divide by 2. And before doing either, you must always stop and decide which to do in this particular case. If you’re driving in heavy traffic, or bad weather, or you’re lost, you don’t want that distraction. The same is true if you’re lost while trying to learn trigonometry.

	Thanks for all the support! For me, that makes for a very happy Tau Day.

	Michael Hartl
	Founder, Tau Day (http://tauday.com/?mc_cid=0fb7cfe59c&mc_eid=[UNIQID])
	Author, The Tau Manifesto (http://tauday.com/tau-manifesto?mc_cid=0fb7cfe59c&mc_eid=[UNIQID])
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