Happy Pi Day! Yes, it’s that time of year again when the month and day (in the American form of date representation) for those legendary 3 digits 3/14, also known as the beginning of the mathematical term Pi1. Being The Count, however, I’m certainly not satisfied with just one Pi Day each year, or just matching 3 digits of Pi for my festivities. No, I must venture forth to find other Math-related dates to share the joy that is the geeky holiday.


Now, Pi Day comes every year but only in America, as the European version of date display comes Day then Month. Unfortunately, this leaves Europe with no way to put forth 3.14 (note, they use a period (.) instead of a slash (/)), as alas, there are only 12 months. For the most part, Europe seems to be out of luck. After searching several dozen math constants2, and I can’t find any that start with a number from 1-30, and have 2 digits after the decimal that form a number less than 13. Viswanath’s Constant3 comes closest, but it looks like we’ll just have to exclude Europeans from our celbratory antics… No pie for you!

Not so fast! Let’s try not to leave them out of all the fun. I present below some alternatives to Pi day, some of which can even be translated to Day before Month!

We’ll have to wait a bit for these extra-geeky days to arrive, but at least we have today! So, those of you who can celebrate Pi day, run out to your Marie Callander’s or Coco’s, or even the local Denny’s, grab a slice, and enjoy! Save some room for Super Pi Day in a few years though, ok?

The Count

1. Pi – the math constant, not the pastry
2. Math Constants
3. Viswanath’s Constant
4. What kind of pie are you?
5. XKCD on e and Pi

Ah, there’s nothing quite like the geek joke. When you hear one, you’re torn between not wanting to look stupid and not wanting to look too smart! I’ve heard a lot of them in my time, and thought I’d share some of my favorites with you here.

Not only does this joke require some small bit of knowledge to get, but this classic example of the geek joke even refers to the separation between those who will get the joke and the rest of humanity. Not a bad start.

There are many, many versions of this joke that shows how math and science theories don’t quite always apply to the real world. I can just imagine these guys standing next to each other; the shooters on each side and the third guy in the middle.

This joke exposes the fact that you can have a math-geek joke with no numbers, variables, or any math at all really. Sure, you could argue it’s a philosophy joke more than a math joke, but those two fields are linked more closely than you might think. It’s still a great example of a joke that you need to be a geek to get.

I have several friends who still think puns are the height of humor. I can’t agree with that, but I can see that they still play an important part in the jokes of today. Here we have a great example of a math-based pun. Can you guess how much the extra-large order costs? How great to only need to put prices on the first two menu items!

This is by far my favorite programming joke. There’s just something truly elegant about something entirely non-contrived that just happens to mean something both to those who use the Julian calendar as well as those of us who deal in non-decimal bases.


There they are, some classic examples of the “geek joke”. I hope you’ve found at least one you hadn’t heard before and maybe even chuckled a little. As far as I know, all of these jokes are public domain, so feel free to treat them as your own. Keep in mind, however, that you may want to choose your audience carefully; a joke that needs explaining is hardly ever funny. Please feel free to post your own jokes in the comments; I’d love to read them.


The Count