I think a possible HN title for this should have been, "Hoosier tried to Hack Math."<p>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: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dihydrogen_monoxide_hoax" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dihydrogen_monoxide_hoax</a>, 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).<p>Substantive content of the bill, near as I can tell:<p><i>[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).]</i>
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!
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?
There's a good numberphile video on this: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFNjA9LOPsg" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFNjA9LOPsg</a>
PI IS EXACTLY 3! -Prof. Frink Glavin
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-Y-ua3WBi4" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-Y-ua3WBi4</a>