In 1897, an Indiana bill was going to redefine Pi | Hacker News Reader

In 1897, an Indiana bill was going to redefine Pi

en.wikipedia.org

34 pointsmsvan13 comments

I think a possible HN title for this should have been, "Hoosier tried to Hack Math."

I spent most of my life in Indiana and we used to mock this situation in math class. Nice to see more of the details on what happened. Reminds me of Ted "the Internet is a series if tubes" Stevens.

See also, this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dihydrogen_monoxide_hoax, especially the latter half of the "Public Efforts Involving DHMO section".

There's a discworld book where some inventor manages to build a machine where all the cogs and gears were cut with π = 3. This resulted in unwanted time travel IIRC.

The bill spends inordinate verbiage denigrating other works, and lauding its own financial generosity (agreeing to not charge for teaching the technique if taught in place of alternatives, none of which work anyway).

Substantive content of the bill, near as I can tell:

[A] circular area is to the square on a line equal to the quadrant of the circumference, as the area of an equilateral rectangle is to the square on one side. ... By taking the quadrant of the circle's circumference for the linear unit, we fulfill the requirements of both quadrature and rectification of the circle's circumference. Furthermore, it has revealed the ratio of the chord and arc of ninety degrees, which is as seven to eight, and also the ratio of the diagonal and one side of a square which is as ten to seven, disclosing the fourth important fact, that the ratio of the diameter and circumference is as five-fourths to four[ (i.e.: pi = 3.2).]

Nothing new, but a good reminder of the idiocy of many not blessed with an education in mathematics, logic or Enlightenment thought. We, HN readers, are lucky to be so educated, so please let's do our best to bring more into the fold of fun with numbers. There are people like this still out there!

Rather than engaging in self-congratulation here, it might be a good idea to take a look at this part of the article (which was not submitted here with its actual title on Wikipedia): "Despite that name [the Indiana Pi Bill], the main result claimed by the bill is a method to square the circle, rather than to establish a certain value for the mathematical constant π (pi), the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter." It's not clear to me that there has been any increase in this era in the percentage of politically involved persons who even know what "squaring the circle" is, much less who know the outline of the proof of why squaring the circle with Euclidean tools is impossible. Indeed, the whole notion of proof seems to be vanishing from secondary school teaching in geometry, so a bill about a method for squaring the circle might be even more confusing to voters today than it was then. Back then and now, it was important to listen patiently to an expert, a mathematician, to understand the flaw in the bill's proposed solution.

You're being somewhat curmudgeonly here, I believe. There is no self-congratulation, rather an exhortation to us all to remember how it's still crucial to be spreading the love and teaching of basic principles of maths. The fact that this even got close to legislation is remarkable, and wouldn't have happened with a numerate and educated legislature (even I dare say the current US Congress, though that may be debatable).

It's a good fable for us, and it can only be constructive to encourage action upon its lesson, in realising that there are many still who'd rather believe in magic rather than engage in thought and play with numbers.

I wonder why this is off limits for governments? Sexual orientation, birth control, sexual health, religion et al are equally ludicrous areas to legislate in. The fault is less black and white, but isn't that more reason to avoid the issues?

platonic birth control doesn't mean what you think it does.

There's a good numberphile video on this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFNjA9LOPsg

PI IS EXACTLY 3! -Prof. Frink Glavin http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-Y-ua3WBi4

I wonder if we could get someone to submit it to Congress.

Thankfully Prof. Waldo from my alma mater set things straight. "Naturally, he listened in. Naturally, he was horrified."

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