Alas, while my posting was meant as a joke, the tau issue is, at core,
not a joke.
But first, there are a few misconceptions here that need help:
(1)
Units
Units are not part of the problem. Pi (and Tau) are
unitless quantities. We may speak of 90 degrees or whatever, but such things only obscure the mathematics more. Pi (and Tau) are a ratio of the same unit.
(2)
Unified language
There is no "true" form of a widely-used language, even of English. A language -- any language -- is composed of idioms shared by a specific cohort. Hence the reasons some found the use of "doubt" to be dubious. It is well-known that within any language there are dialects among speakers. For any one speaker to stand up and proclaim his dialect superior due to any reason, even age, is often just pompous pretense.
That the likes of Oxford and Webster (and people like MLA and APA) spend time codifying language only hints at the very real need to standardize/standardise in specific contexts where people from different idiomatic backgrounds may need to communicate clearly and professionally. Anciently in England, this was done by speaking
French.
UK vs American English, in particular, were purposefully separated by efforts led by Webster -- whose dictionaries are world known -- in an effort to take an American ownership of our dialect, mostly for pedagogical and some political reasons. Some good places to start reading about it are:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noah_Webster
http://www.merriam-webster.com/info/noah.htm
(3)
Daylight Savings Time
There are actually valid reasons for the observance of DST. The fact that not everyone agrees, and that it has historical and political signficance is enough to cause some modern mapping convolutions.
http://www.webexhibits.org/daylightsaving/
(4)
The USA doesn't buck all your standards
Standards exist because of precedent. The US never decided to be obtuse and refuse to use the EU's modern metric standards.
The fact is that the USA is both physically and economically larger than all the EU put together, and is a powerhouse on the world stage. The
cost of throwing out all extant standards -- retooling, education, propaganda, support for existing infrastructure, etc -- simply overwhelms the benefits of going purely metric
right now.
That said, there are things in play to encourage metrication in the US. And really, the idea that the USA eschews things metric is nonsense if you think about it. It doesn't matter what industry you are in, there are things SI in use.
More reading:
http://science.howstuffworks.com/why-us-not-on-metric-system.htm
(4)
Substitutions and conversions
As pi and tau are unitless, there are no conversions to be made.
Suggest to me an equation that needs you to solve with pi and not 2π. (The "manifesto" suggests a good number of them already -- and shows where it is a convolution of 2π.)
You cannot mess up any calculation or equation by using т instead of 2π.
(5)
Pedagogy
The original papers suggesting we use [tau] instead of pi are pedagogical. The fact is that pi is a stupid number, because it only represents half a circle and throws an extra level of confusion into the mix.
If the "manifesto" had been read, even if you disagree with it, the points are valid. Everyone struggles with understanding how to use pi -- it is the one major sticking point in learning trigonometric (and related geometric) principles. Tau untangles it by getting rid of the idea that somehow the constant 2π is composed of two different pieces: 2 and π, and prevents simplification errors where the student unknowingly (and incorrectly) tries to get rid of that 2, leading to
less simple problems. We're talking anti-obfuscation here.
Read the "manifesto" -- all this is made plain.
The purpose is to fix a historical pedagogical accident, and to do so in a way that does not complicate anything that anyone else has ever done with pi -- except maybe memorize a gazillion digits.
More interesting reading:
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/let-s-use-tau-it-s-easier-than-pi/
http://esr.ibiblio.org/?p=3481
http://xkcd.com/1292/
(6)
Wait... you're serious about this?
Why not? It makes more sense to use tau, and, despite the FUD floating around, doesn't affect anything in any horrible, grotesque way. Go ahead, post Euler's equation. Post stuff about name conflicts. Post anything you like. It'll just show you are a dogmatist who didn't even bother to read the "manifesto" to see how stupid it is to defend poor, defenseless pi with such nonsense "rebuttals".
The fact is, in terms of doing work,
it doesn't matter which you prefer. Pick the one you like.
In terms of
learning the material and dealing with the math(s), tau is easier to grok
with no downside. And, oddly enough, people have been doing it for years anyway. So, yeah, get a life. I'm sure we'll see the trolling from those it bothers too much to let be.
blue vs green
PS. Good job catching the "wrong" color is green. St Patrick has always been associated with blue, never green. However, modern associations, including those encouraged by official Irish cultural centers, are green.
So the joke really was that there was a "wrong" color. Blue, Green, Orange -- pick one and enjoy. (Just watch out for people who like to pinch.)
Y'all might also consider that the St. Paddy's joke is a commentary on the Pi vs Tau stuff. (In case that sailed over yer heads.)
PPS. I can't stand the month-day-year ordering. I always write dates as YYYY-MM-DD for my own (unambiguous) purposes, and otherwise write with the month name or abbreviation unless otherwise restricted.
2015-03-18
Mar 3, 2015
Anyway, enjoy the randomness! This should be
fun!