Square Root Day - The Holiday For Math Lovers

The rare event, Square Root Day, falls on the calendar only nine times each century.  Ron Gordon of Redwood City, CA is said to be a fan of square roots, and the creator of this little known holiday favored by math junkies around the world.  Originally created on September 9, 1981 (9/9/81), the event now has an official spokesman:  Ron Gordon.  Ron is holding a contest this year and the winner who shows the most Square Root Day spirit either in an event photo or essay will take home the price of $339.

3 is the square root of 9 (for the math challenged), which is why 3/3/09 has the honor of being one of these special events.  According to the Scientific American blog , the unofficial holiday is only celebrated when the numbers of the calendar align so that the month and day are each equal to the square root of the year.  If you missed out on celebrating this year's holiday, you'll have to wait till April 4, 2016 (4/4/16) for another chance.  Next in line will be May 5, 2025 (5/5/25), and June 6, 2036 (6/6/36).  The 2,400 - member Square Root Day group on Facebook suggests celebrating by eating root vegetables like radishes, carrots, or turnips.  Of course, in keeping with the holiday theme, you're going to want to cut those into perfect squares.

Around the country, math teachers can enjoy a little more popularity using this math oddity as a way to create fun math activities to be enjoyed by their students.