Square Root Day
Today is May 5, 2025…and if you use numbers to express it, it’s 5-5-25. The square root of 25 is 5…so that makes this Square Root Day.
Don’t take my word for it. Believe Ron Gordon, a retired math teacher who has followed the issue for more than 40 years.
Since 1981, Gordon has been using the handful of days each century where the phenomenon occurs—9 each century, to be exact–to share his love of math. Then, it was September 9, or 9-9-81.
If you go to his website, squarerootday.net, you’ll learn more about it and even be able to enter a contest. The site even makes a few suggestions of how you should celebrate Square Root Day: you can get things squared away, try to fit a square peg into a round hole, go square dancing, tie a square knot, drink root beer from a square glass, eat a square meal, or watch pigs root around. That last one is easier to do in Iowa than some places.
Ron Gordon says, “It’s kind of like a secret that you can’t help sharing. A little math, a little smile, a little fun—that’s Square Root Day!” He adds, “These days are like calendar comets—you wait and wait and wait for them, then they brighten up your day–and poof–they’re gone!”
So Happy Square Root Day; 5-5-25. And enjoy it today, because the next one is more than 11 years away: 6-6-36.
