Comments on: The Indiana Pi Bill (Thank you Caitlin!)

By: Korin

Korin — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 19:39:05 +0000

1) I am now very ashamed of my state
2) I knew there was a reason I liked Purdue!

By: Maggie

Maggie — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 00:47:06 +0000

Unfortunately, it is not an urban legend. I there a chapter on it in Petr Beckmann’s book “A History of Pi” (Now, let’s all just pretend that I’m not a super geek for owning this book)

By: mc112358

mc112358 — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 23:06:51 +0000

You need a slight technical fix here. “…as opposed to its truly infinite value” is incorrect. It does not have an infinite value but an infinite decimal expansion.

By: Meg

Meg — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 21:51:55 +0000

Yay for Purdue. Although I’m a current LA student there/here. . . I still appreciate the effort to keep pi true!

By: ann

ann — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 20:16:24 +0000

Well, Hurray for Purdue and that professor… I’m from IN…but a Purdue alum so I feel somewhat vindicated! haha

By: Doc

Doc — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 18:21:59 +0000

Reminds me of a story (probably just an urban legend) of a bill introduced in the early 20th C Mississipi or Alabama legistlature to repeal the law of gravity. The story has it that it only failed by one vote. Gotta wonder what’d have happened if it passed….

Haven’t Wiki’d this one yet but am headed there soon.

By: septer

septer — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 17:30:33 +0000

The mention of PI and the fact that I am currently reading this book by Dr.Sacks about neurological disorders, reminded me of a book I read last year, ‘Born on a Blue Day’ by Daniel Tammet. I was fascinated by how Daniel sees numbers as colors. He painted a picture of PI as he sees it. You can see it here –
www(dot)optimnem(dot)co(dot)uk /artwork(dot)php
Another cool fact – Russian composer Nikolai Korsakov had synesthesia and saw notes as different colors.

Sorry for going on tangents here!

By: Mangesh

Mangesh — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 17:25:33 +0000

Actually, if you look a little more closely at the snopes.com page, it says that while the AL case was false, the idea’s based on the very real Indiana bill that failed in the state senate in the 1890s.

By: kdub

kdub — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 17:09:59 +0000

I don’t know if this should be called a fact… this story started out being in Alabama, and they wanted it to be equal to 3. Now it’s in Indiana and 3.2?

See Snopes.com, search for “pi”, will not let me post a link to the article.

By: septer

septer — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 16:57:51 +0000

I wonder if the fact generator always starts with the last fact that was added…I never knew the fact made it to the generator! Yippie!