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It is the 120th anniversary of the passing of a bill by the House of Congress of Indiana to change the value of pi to 3.2! [Errors in the original are copied here verbatim. -Ed]
Weird as it sounds, in effect the House voted 67-0 on H.B. 246 "Introducing a new mathematical truth" on February 5th, 1897 and referred to the Senate of Indiana.
On February 2, 1897 Representative S. E. Nicholson, of Howard County, chairman of the Committee on Education, reported to the House:
"Your Committee on Education, to which was referred House Bill No. 246, entitled a bill for an act entitled an act introducing a new mathematical truth, has had same under consideration, and begs leave to report the same back to the House with the recommendation that said bill do pass."
The bill was duly passed to the Senate on February 10th and read on the 11th, then referred to the Temperance Committee. On February 12 Senator Harry S. New, of Marion County, Chairman of the Committee on Temperance made the following report to the Senate:
"Your Committee on Temperance, to which was referred House Bill No. 246, introduced by Mr. Record, has had the same under consideration. and begs leave to report the same back to the Senate with the recommendation that said bill do pass."
On the afternoon of February 12 "Senator Bozeman called up House Bill No. 246. The bill was read a second time by title. Senator Hogate moved to amend the bill by striking out the enacting clause. The motion was lost. Senator Hubbell moved to postpone the further consideration of this bill indefinitely. Which motion prevailed."
The bill was never voted on, it was simply postponed following ridicule from the press. "Senator Hubbell characterized the bill as utter folly. The Senate might as well try to legislate water to run up hill as to establish mathematical truth by law. Leading papers all over the country, he said, were ridiculing the Indiana Legislature. It was outrageous that the State of Indiana should pay $250 a day to have time wasted on such frivolous matters."
A very interesting story by Will E. Edington then at DePauw University, published by the Proceedings of the Indiana Academy of Science. Sorry PDF only.
(Score: 5, Informative) by Thexalon on Tuesday February 14 2017, @04:30PM
The goal of these guys was of course to set the value of pi to match the biblical truth rather than observational evidence. However, somebody did the math [purplemath.com], and it turns out the Bible doesn't say what the religious nutjobs said it says: The Biblical value of pi, once you factor in the thickness of the bowl in question, is within 0.002 of the correct number.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2) by jdavidb on Tuesday February 14 2017, @04:37PM
The goal of these guys was of course to set the value of pi to match the biblical truth rather than observational evidence
I didn't see that in the PDF at all. It sounds like some conman was trying to play a prank and get the legislature to pass something ridiculous. The incentive he offered was that his "discovery" was patented, but he would let the state of Indiana use it royalty free in their school textbooks if they would pass a law stating that his "discovery" was truth.
The article also indicated that some of the sources he started with had errors like errors in dates so he had to do a lot of digging to find out what really happened. Do you have any source to substantiate that the motivation behind this law was religious?
ⓋⒶ☮✝🕊 Secession is the right of all sentient beings
(Score: 3, Interesting) by gauauu on Tuesday February 14 2017, @04:40PM
I always believed that as well, but as far as I can tell, that's not true. It seems to be based on some wacky math by a Indiana mathematician, who then wanted to get royalties on his new "correct" version of pi, but told Indiana that they wouldn't have to pay royalties to him if they enacted this as law.
See this page for some more information: http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Indiana_Pi_Bill [rationalwiki.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 14 2017, @05:15PM
And the biblical value if you don't factor in the thickness of the bowl is 3.0, which is even farther from 3.2 than the real value of pi. So if your assumption were right, they would have failed even more spectacularly.
(Score: 3, Informative) by DeathMonkey on Tuesday February 14 2017, @08:33PM
The goal of these guys was of course to set the value of pi to match the biblical truth rather than observational evidence.
Apparently that's one of the fake ones. [snopes.com]
(Score: 2) by butthurt on Tuesday February 14 2017, @11:19PM
From your link (emphasis mine):
Though the claim about the Alabama state legislature is pure nonsense, it is similar to an event that happened more than a century ago. In 1897 the Indiana House of Representatives unanimously passed a measure (House Bill no. 246, introduced by Rep. Taylor I. Record) regarding the calculation of the area of a circle that assigned various values to pi other than 3.14. (The bill died in the state Senate.)
(Score: 2) by butthurt on Tuesday February 14 2017, @11:25PM
Ah, I see now. The falseness in the claim is not just that the proposal took place in Alabama, but that it was based upon the Bible.
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Wednesday February 15 2017, @04:40PM
Thank you, I stand corrected.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.