111 Years Ago, Indiana Almost Legislated Pi

I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property writes "On February 5, 1897, 111 years ago today, the Indiana legislature very nearly passed a bill 'introducing a new mathematical truth,' that would have erroneously established pi as the ratio 'five-fourths to four' or 3.2. The story explaining the rationale behind the bill and how they were prevented from legislating it when a real mathematician intervened is quite interesting, because the man who discovered the 'new mathematical truth' wanted to charge royalties, which could have made pi the first form of irrational property."

Comments

You Americans ...

[ThirdPrize]

you crack me up, you do.

Is it true no one takes care of us but ourselves?

[Futurepower(R)]

"... not the word of an infallible being either."

You are going down a slippery slope. Next you will be saying the U.S. president wasn't right when he said "When Saudis attack, invade Iraq", and "The answer to violence is more violence", and "We'll show them! They killed 3,000 Americans, we'll kill more", and "The way to make Muslims more gentle is to attack and kill them".