The April 1998 issue of the New Mexicans for Science and Reason newsletter contained an article claiming that the Alabama state legislature had voted to change the value of the mathematical constant pi from 3.14159 to the 'Biblical value' of 3.0. Before long the article had made its way onto the internet, and then it rapidly made its way around the world, forwarded by people in their email. It only became apparent how far the article had spread when the Alabama legislature began receiving hundreds of calls from people protesting the legislation. The original article, which was intended as a parody of legislative attempts to circumscribe the teaching of evolution, was written by a physicist named Mark Boslough.
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Being a math teacher, I find this hilarious. Obviously, these people don't know the meaning of pi but only its value.
Posted by Kerri  in  Orange Park, FL  on  Mon Mar 29, 2004  at  12:38 PM

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am an engineer so i can not help laughing..kkkkkk
Posted by Apollo  in  Daegu city, Korea  on  Thu Apr 01, 2004  at  12:34 AM

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I heard this story back in the 1980's, the version I heard was that it passed the first reading but got blocked at committee stage
Posted by Carl  in  Wales  on  Thu Apr 01, 2004  at  02:59 AM

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This is a good one. Sorry I missed it the first time around.
Posted by Jen  in  Acadiana, Louisiana  on  Thu Apr 01, 2004  at  08:48 AM

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I'm with Kerri and Apollo, this is great. I remember hearing this back in 1998 and thinking "How stupid can they be? Pi isn't an arbitrary number, is a constant of nature! That'll never succeed."
Posted by Jennifer  on  Thu Apr 01, 2004  at  09:41 AM

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I have read that, many years before 1998, the state of Nebraska actually did pass a law fixing the value of PI at precisely 22/7, a well-known approximation, which being numerically less ridiculous than 3, slid under the radar of those who do not really understand the concept of irrationality, let alone transcendence, of numbers.

This is hardly more ridiculous than arguments about the exact date of the vernal equinox, "March 21 vs. March 22", when it can range over a much wider range from year to year.

15 years ago I knew a well-educated person who called a friend a liar when she explained the concept of "leap century" saying it was the most ridiculous thing he'd ever heard of.



Posted by Charles Valentine  in  Nashua NH, USA  on  Thu Apr 01, 2004  at  12:10 PM

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I've been laughing so much about this
one that my stomach hurts.
Posted by Alejandra  on  Thu Apr 01, 2004  at  09:17 PM

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The scary thing is that the story about people trying to outlaw the teaching of the theory of evolution is NOT a hoax!
Posted by Yariv  in  Japan  on  Fri Apr 02, 2004  at  04:15 AM

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On Ronald Inglehart's book, "Modernization and Postmodernization: Cultural, Economic, and Political Change in 43 Societies", he says (approximately, i'm translating) "On the 19th century, the legislature of the state of Indiana passed a resolution that declared officially that starting from that moment, pi could be equivalent to a rounded 4,0 istead of the uncomfortable 3,1416"
Inglehart says this as an anecdotal comment, but he doesn't back it up, he doesn't offer sources. Reading this article, I just remembered I read this a couple of years ago and searched the book.
I can't find anything about this supposed law on the web. Anyone knows something about this?
Posted by Domingo Moreno  in  Chile  on  Fri Apr 02, 2004  at  05:48 PM

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On Feb 8, 1897, the Indiana House of Representatives passed house bill no. 246 written by Edwin J Goodwin, MD, setting the value of pi at 3.2. It was never passed by the Indiana Senate.
Posted by gordon clason  in  kansas city  on  Sat Apr 03, 2004  at  05:26 AM

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Bible false on PI ?

I Kings 7:23Ð26 and II Chronicles 4:2Ð5 describe a huge brass bowl built by King Solomon. If the diameter of this bowl was 10 cubits, then the circumference should have been 31.415926...cubits, not just 30 cubits! Any math student will tell you that the circumference of a circle is found by taking the diameter times Pi (3..141592653589793...)

How does this add up?

simple!

The diameter of 10 cubits is from outer rim to outer rim, the way anyone would measure a circular object. The circumference of 30 cubits, however, was of the inner circle, after subtracting the thickness of the brass (two handbreadthsÑone for each side (verse 4:5)) from which the bowl was made.


complete article:
http://www.drdino.com/cse.asp?pg=articles&specific=9
Posted by Eyesee  on  Sat Apr 03, 2004  at  01:11 PM

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I'm tempted to believe the stories about god-botherers "making legislation" about pi = 3 and the like, are all hoaxes. A bit like the hoax about Columbus proving the earth was round.


Posted by Anonymous  in  Europe  on  Sat Apr 10, 2004  at  12:51 PM

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I can't let this go without comment. How can people who "believe" the bible fail to look at what it says? Unfortunately for the premise of Eyesee and DrDino, the fiction that God is referring to the "inner circumference" is directly contradicted by the text itself which says, "a line of 30 cubits did compass it round about." To call "compass round about" an inner circumference requires assigning meanings to words that they don't contain. This is only one of many places where God demonstrates that He is ignorant of mathematics. Read John Paulos's book INNUMERANCY for some others.
Posted by gordon clason  in  kansas city  on  Sat Apr 10, 2004  at  11:37 PM

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I think the reason that the bible cited a round number like 30 cubits is simply because no-one could be bluggered writing 31.415926...as much as we need to know, it was about that big.
Posted by Evan  on  Wed May 05, 2004  at  06:58 AM

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Academic evolution? Mmmhh...Is that the reason why Mexico all of a sudden became part of the Southern Hemisphere on the USA text books?
Posted by Pablo  in  Delaware  on  Fri Jun 25, 2004  at  09:46 PM

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Back in Biblical times, there were no real standard measurements. You couldn't go to the store and buy a cubit stick. I'm guessing the achitect makes some 'best guesses' when designing ig.
Posted by Czolgolz  in  Missouri  on  Wed Nov 03, 2004  at  03:50 PM

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The scary thing is I could easily believe something like this may be true. Not because I'm simply gullible but because it is not uncommon for
people who have strong faith in the bible to ignore facts if it contradicts it.
Posted by Ian  in  UK  on  Sun Nov 28, 2004  at  07:39 PM

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The Indiana bill didn't actually set a meaningful value for pi, as it was based on gibberish written by a crackpot. It never made it past the debate stage, as a professor of mathematics happened to be watching the proceedings from the gallery, and managed to find a representative who'd listen to him. Try doing that today.

You can read the actual text of the bill and the gibberish it was based on in Petr Beckmann's "History of Pi."
Posted by Ron  on  Fri Feb 04, 2005  at  07:10 AM

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Typical Americans... Way too much time on your hands... Get a life people!
Posted by notaloser  in  notamerica  on  Sun Mar 13, 2005  at  10:10 PM

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"Typical Americans... Way too much time on your hands... Get a life people!"
WOW!!! who is talking?!!! People who has 35 hours work week and two months vacation?!!!
Posted by yolkin  on  Thu Mar 24, 2005  at  12:29 PM

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