Happy Square Root Day!

Square Root Day (3/3/09) today, math nerds everywhere rejoice

A rare math holiday, Square Root Day is just a warm-up for Pi day

Zack Teibloom


Less than two weeks before the famed Pi day (3.14), we’re treated to another math nerd holiday: square root day.

For those of you who don’t remember junior high math, a square root is when a number can be divided by the same number. Therefore, 3/3/09 qualifies and is the last chance we’ll have for a holiday like this for seven years.

“These days are like calendar comets, you wait and wait and wait for them, then they brighten up your day--and poof--they’re gone,” Ron Gordon, a Redwood City, Calif., teacher who organized a contest intended to publicize the event, told the Associated Press. The prize? $339.

To celebrate, people often cut root vegetables into squares. When that gets boring, they think about what pie they’ll make for Pi day. Hurray for math!

Other square root days this century include: 1/1/01 (but more people were celebrating the Millennium), 2/2/04, today, 4/4/16, 5/5/25, 6/6/36, 7/7/49, 8/8/56, 9/9/81.
3/3/09