1998: 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. Soon the article made its way onto the internet, and then it rapidly spread around the world, forwarded by 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 physicist Mark Boslough.
Comments
Listed in chronological order. Newest comments at the end.

---

Page 4 of 4 pages « First  <  2 3 4

---

CORRECTION
The Bible does not say pi = 3 ! TRANSLATIONS of the Torah say pi = 3 ;

I am sure that 99 % of the people reading about pi = 3 have never in their life ever seen
an authentic Torah Scroll.

This url will take you to a line in Genesis VII.17
http://bible.ort.org/books/torahd5.asp?action=displaypage&book=1&chapter=8&verse=17&portion=2

The blue lines give the vocalization " Kree " and the black lines gives the text " Ksiv"

If you look carefully at the third line from the end of the blue, second to last word from the end of the line you will see a little circle.

Now go to the same word in the black and there is no circle

This is called a kree( apparent) /ksiv ( true)which means that the word is not read ( kree) the way it is written (ksiv)

When you go to I Kings VII.23 there is a different kree/ ksiv

In the Hebrew language letters have numerical
equivaents and it comes out that the I Kings VII.23 gives the value of pi as 3 times 111/106.

Thus the Torah agrees with modern science to four decimal places.
Posted by abra  on  Sun Apr 01, 2007  at  11:45 AM

---

I have to admit, I fell for this one when I first read it many years ago.

Not because I'm ignorant of math, but more because I have my doubts about the intelligence of Alabama legislators (and I didn't read about it on April Fools day).
Posted by Dale Atkin  in  Calgary, AB  on  Sun Apr 01, 2007  at  01:04 PM

---

BRAKING NEWS!!!! George bush was just assasinated!!!! My father is the body gaurd of his majesty and he just emailed me to tell me Bush was poisened by his wife after he had an argument about the cost of the war in Iraq. They've been having marital troubles over the last few years but I never thought it would come to this. God help us all...
Posted by Kat  in  the white house  on  Sun Apr 01, 2007  at  07:13 PM

---

Please people how could you be so narrow minded. Why overanylise everything. Life is life. Pi is nothing. When you're dead and gone, will it matter if you knew you were right about pi. And if by some beautiful divine intervention and all holy enlightenement you came to understand that pi is not what it is you will be tortured for all eternity to realise your life meant nothing in the long run. Give it up. I am a proclaimed slacker and hate science. It ruins all that is pure and simple by complicating things. What is love? Love. What is freedom? Freedom. The more you know the more is left to find out. The less you more you know is real.
Posted by NOBODY  in  NOWHERE  on  Sun Apr 01, 2007  at  07:25 PM

---

Very nice hoax. Anything to parody the nonsense of biblical induced actions that do not have a slight mark of reason should always be at the top of the list.
Posted by freakazoid  in  USA  on  Sun Apr 01, 2007  at  07:40 PM

---

When we write out pi as a number, we all seem to round it off somewhere, I like 3.14. My grandmother, who was from the old school (born 1898) told me as a preschooler: I could find the distance across a tree by measuring around the tree and dividing by 3. That worked for me for many years and kept me from cutting down the tree to find the diameter. I would not lose my faith in the bible if I found that King Solomon, who was from the old old school, also rounded pi off to 3. But upon reading I Kings 7:23-26 It said the font was “ten cubits from one brim to the other” and “an hand breadth thick” and “a line of thirty cubits did compass it round about”. So I would guess that puts the diameter at about ten cubits and two handbreadths with a circumference of 30 cubits. Dividing c by d I get pi. Depending on how fat your hand is and who’s cubit stick one uses (Kings were larger than commoners) the math seems to work out for a round vessel. Maybe the bible is true?
Posted by Don  in  Utah  on  Sun Apr 01, 2007  at  08:26 PM

---

TO NOTALOSER:

"Typical Americans... Way too much time on your hands... Get a life people!" ??????????????????????

Which “typical Americans" are you referring to? The Alabamans, column contributors, everyone? Do you even know to whom, or what you are referring?

What does “Get a life” mean?

Your simple-minded, nonsensical statement leads me to believe that you have no idea what you are talking about. You had better change your name--I think you ARE a loser!!!

P.S. We all must have a life, as it is incredibly hard to type, when you are dead!
Posted by David Edwards  in  55423  on  Sun Apr 15, 2007  at  07:34 AM

---

im just posting a bit of a new thread...
most people know the first 3 numbers of pi (3.14) but how far can you go??
respond

Posted by Deanna  on  Thu Mar 27, 2008  at  06:04 PM

---

And of course, we mustn't forget the concern of the motor industry - when they realised that, as the circumference of a tyre is 2 * Pi, that all their machines had to be retooled to produce hexagonal wheels.
Posted by Matt Symes  in  London  on  Mon Mar 31, 2008  at  02:51 PM

---

As mentioned previously in the comments, the State of Nebraska did redefine pi to 22/7, but for a fairly good reason. The problem was that over the taxing of grain stored in silos/grain elevators. The volume of the grain was pi times the radius of the silo squared times the height. For legal reasons having the calculation based on a transcendental and thus undefinable number made for some interesting court cases. Thus, for the purposes of taxing grain, pi was redefined to 22/7.
Posted by Andy  on  Mon Mar 31, 2008  at  03:44 PM

---

It is a clear indicator of how gullible people are such as Bible scoffers that believe that the Bible somehow says the value of pi is 3.0. If you simply make a formula from the description in the Bible, you will find that it does NOT in any way have the value of pi at 3.0.

30C / pi + 2H = 10C (c = cubits, H = handbreadths)

You can substitute your measurements for cubits and handbreadths and even solve for pi to see for yourself. Pi doesn't come out to be 3.0 as so many idiotic Bible scoffers have so erroneously repeated over and over. It goes to show you, people will believe anything as long as it isn't in the Bible.
Posted by Haekel  in  US  on  Mon Mar 31, 2008  at  09:04 PM

---

Gracie Allen: Tell me something you learned in college
Mickie Rooney: Pi R Squared
Gracie Allen: Pi R Squared? Hmmph...shows how little you know. Pie are round
Posted by JB  on  Mon Mar 31, 2008  at  11:21 PM

---

Funny. Nowadays, we need a parody of states' attempt to circumscribe the teachings of genetic engineering.
I want a large container of coffee.
Posted by Monkeythyme  in  Nashville, TN  on  Tue Apr 01, 2008  at  07:13 AM

---

Terry Pratchet, the author of the Disc World series of humorous fantasy books explores this issue in his book "Going Postal" . In his version, some wizards couldn't be bothered with the extra digits after 3, and created a circle where Pi=3. This of course had dire effects on the entire time-space continuum.Pratchet is a master satirist and if you read enough of his books you find that he makes fun of just about every institution out there, especially if they take themselves too seriously..

So- PI may equal three somewhere, but beware of the consequences...
Posted by Randolph  in  coos county NH  on  Tue Apr 01, 2008  at  10:32 AM

---

My calculator shows 3.141592654. Imagine if they tried the hoax on mar. 14 (3-140
Posted by Sandra  in  Tx  on  Tue Apr 01, 2008  at  10:46 AM

---

I grew up in Alabama, and, knowing Alabama as I do, have no problem beleiving that this really happened. Alabama is unique, thank god. two Alabamas and I would be forced to move to another planet. When I visit there I feel like I am on another planet.
Posted by robert ambrose  in  up north  on  Tue Apr 01, 2008  at  11:10 AM

---

hhm. i haven't read the article but in my opinion and how hard some ppl might try , the number of pi is impossible to change . i read all the comments and noone really explains what pi (3.1415926...) exactly is . π is the number of diameters needed to make a circle . not 3 nor 4 . just 3.1415926...........................
Posted by argie  in  greece  on  Tue Apr 01, 2008  at  03:15 PM

---

It is entirely possible to create circles that have a circumference of 3 * diameter.

However, you can't do it on a flat (or "Euclidean") surface.

If, on the other hand, you grab a sphere, and draw a circle at at a constant 60 degrees of latitude you will find that the ratio of the circumference to the diameter (the diameter being the path you take to get from one side of the circle to the other in the shortest distance - i.e. by walking through the "North Pole") is exactly three.

As for the comments above about "How long is the decimal expansion of Pi" - there are lots of numbers you can't write out exactly as a decimal number. 1/3 for example (0.333...). But at least it can be written as a fraction (such numbers are called "Rational numbers".

But there is no fraction either that equals Pi. This makes is an "Irrational" number. (In fact, it's worse than that - it's called "Transcendental" - but that's a whole another story)
Posted by Mazor Rackham  in  London  on  Wed Apr 02, 2008  at  03:02 AM

---

Page 4 of 4 pages « First  <  2 3 4

---

Name:

Email (if you want to be notified of responses):

Location:

URL:

Note: To prove that you're a human being, not an automated spam bot, you've got to type in the word you see below. If you register as a member of the site you won't have to do this. Once registered, you'll then also need to login. If you're seeing this notice, and you've already registered, that means you haven't logged in. As a member you also won't have to enter your personal info every time you leave a comment.

Submit the word you see below:

Smileys

Remember my personal information

Notify me of follow-up comments?