E Day

e day is an annual celebration of the mathematical constant e, of which the first six digits are 2.71828. The precise date on which it is celebrated is still the subject of some controversy, owing to the difference in the first three digits of e depending on whether a truncated (2.71, i.e. January 27th) or rounded (2.72, i.e. February 27th) approach is taken.

History

The first known celebration of e day is believed to have occurred on 27/1/83, thus predating the very first Pi day by over five years. This happened when a group of second-year mathematics undergraduates at the University of Unter Über Schlesswig Holstein decided that they had had enough of calculus and were instead going to get blind drunk on weissbier. The resulting rampage through the town is estimated to have caused twenty-four million deutschmarks worth of damage. However, the ringleaders avoided any punishment by pointing out the date and claiming that they were in fact celebrating the transcendental mathematical constant. Despite strong suspicions that this was a complete coincidence, the university and municipal authorities were forced to back down.

There were no further celebrations of e day for several years after this, as mathematical departments in universities throughout the world maintained a state of high alert in case of any repetition of the Unter Über Schlesswig Holstein incident. However, when the first Pi day went off without any apparent problems, a small celebration of e day was allowed in 1990 and has continued thereafter.

Controversy

As soon as the very first officially-sanctioned e day was announced, the potential celebrants immediately split into two camps. One - the Trunkees - maintained that in order to strictly preserve the digits of e, the number should be truncated to 2.71, meaning that the date of the celebration should take place on January 27th. However, the Roundheads insisted that this was mathematically illiterate and that e day should in fact occur on February 27th. A number of Americans also tried to insist that neither of these was correct as the date was on day/month order rather than the US standard month/day version, and there was a brief attempt to define what might be meant by either the 71st day of February or perhaps the 1st day of the 27th month. This was soon abandoned.