Tau time!

[sniffnoy]

So I'm going to assume you're all already familiar with the arguments that instead of having a symbol for π, we should have a symbol for 2π. (And if you're not, I'm about to give you a link that goes over them. :) ) Anyway, I just saw over on Nick's Twitter the "Tau Day" website, which goes over the usual arguments, but then *also* actually suggests a possibly usable replacement! Namely, τ. (Well, I guess you saw that coming.) So, today is τ day. Though I don't think "τ time" is really well-defined, seeing as there aren't 31 hours in a day...

(Yes, ordinarily I dislike all such calendar things, but this I thought was worth pointing out...)

-Harry

Comments

[dreyonlegacy.livejournal.com]

I like most of the argument, but I think I actually prefer Euler's identity in the e^{iπ} = -1 form. e^{iτ} = 1 just looks trivial.

[sniffnoy.livejournal.com]

Well, I agree e^iπ=-1 is better for confusing people who don't know complex exponentials, but hey, 2 is an important constant too! Nothing wrong with putting τ/2 in there.

But in truth, that argument really just strikes me as silly. It's pretty clear, I think, that τ is way more practical... I don't really care about how it looks in Euler's Identity.