[geeks] New Tech Schools: Digital Harbor in Baltimore

[Dan Sikorski]

Sandwich Maker wrote:
> ...and pointy-headed politicians demanding action 'to keep the us
> competitive' just make the problem worse.  but that's politics all
> over; we must all have heard the story of the illinois legislature
> that tried to cut through the mathematical wrangling about pi by
> declaring it to be 3...
>   
We must have all heard that story WRONG a million times.  First, it 
wasn't in Illinois (Alabama, Oklahoma, or Kansas), it was in Indiana.  
Second, it was not approximated to 3, it was "five-fourths to four" 
(3.2).  Third, every time i hear the story, someone says the reasoning 
was different.  It was "A Bill for an act introducing a new mathematical 
truth and offered as a contribution to education to be used only by the 
State of Indiana free of cost by paying any royalties whatever on the 
same, provided it is accepted and adopted by the official action of the 
Legislature of 1897. "  They thought that they had a smart mathematician 
who make a wonderful discovery.

Read the story about the incident here:
http://www.agecon.purdue.edu/crd/Localgov/Second%20Level%20pages/Indiana_Pi_Story.htm

Skip to the text of the bill here:
http://www.agecon.purdue.edu/crd/Localgov/Second%20Level%20pages/indiana_pi_bill.htm

See #7 here for a blurb about the Alabama Pi HOAX:
http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/aprilfool/

    -Dan Sikorski (South Bend, IN)